By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
The word “NonAlligned was first used in global politics in the the 20th Century to refer to countries that were not formally aligned with or against any major power blocks. Such countries were formally organized into a political group in 1961 as an initiative of five leaders of those days, Josip Broz Tito of the then Yugoslavia, Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nassar of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia and Jawaharlal Nehru of India. Its first chairman was Jawaarlal Nehru.
The coinage of the phrase “Nonaligned Movement” (NAM), however ,first appeared n global politics in 1976. Even up to that time, the purpose of NAM had not been clearly articulated and clarified and, therefore, remained amorphous. It had to wait until Fideral Castro’s Havana Decaration of 1979, in which he stated thus:
“The purpose of the Nonaligned Movement is to ensure the national independence, sovereignty, national integrity and security of NAM countries in the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism and racism, and all forms of foreign occupation , domination, interference or hegemony, as well as against power and block politics”.
It is, however, important to We live in a World today which is far more interconnected and interdependent than it was in the 20th Century. It is a globalized world, which is better characterized as a diminishing global village.
Under these conditions, independence and sovereignty and nationhood are surely threatened, and the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism, occupation, domination, interference and hegemony has never been so difficult and complicated, especially in Africa, where the African Union has stated that globalization is the pathway to development the Continent.
Nevertheless, increasingly, meaningless words -independence, sovereignty nonaligned and neutral – are still used to refer to relationships between countries. You hear some countries saying they are independent and sovereign when they are increasingly dependent on other bigger, more developed countries, and cannot run their economies without dependence on “foreign aid” and donations from such countries or from international financial institutions and charity organizations. For example, today Uganda is called the first international Bantustan for this very reason.
You hear other countries calling themselves neutral, meaning that if other countries previously engaged in the cold war of 1945-1989 between the USSR and USA, the neutral countries did not take sides in their conflicts.
More important, and the basis of this article, some countries still claim that they are not aligned either to the West, to the East (Russia) or to the new superpower, China, although this is absolutely impossible in a globalized economy with exploitative tendencies.
A little history is important hear, especially for the young readers of this article. Soon after World War II the world was characterized as either Western Block or Eastern Block, with the Western block (NATO Pact countries) led by the USA, and composed of the whole of Western Europe, except East Germany and the Eastern or Warsaw Pact Block, led by the defunct USSR, which was composed of some 70 Nations and dominated by Russia.
What was called the Cold War was an uneasy military relationship between the USSR and USA a relationship of military competition with a view to dominating the world. China was there but inconspicuous and struggling to make itself into an important military and economic power, but was more aligned to the USSR.
The USSR and USA competed for dominance of the air space as for dominance of the Earth. Initially the USSR was the first to send a person to the Moon, then the USA followed. Today Russia, which a relic of the defunct USSR, and the USA both have nuclear arsenals, biological weapons and chemical weapons.
They spent years signing pacts to control their proliferation and use of these dangerous weapons to human existence and survival as well as to our ecological integrity, but other countries, such as China and North Korea, also have them.
China is now both a military and economic power. It is also the second to South Korea in Intellectual Capital rating globally. However, when Russia is engaged in military conflicts, like it is now a war of aggression and attrition against Ukraine, China tends to be on the side of Russia.
The truth is that the globalized world is in a state of war all the time. However, the creation of the United Nations Organization (UN) at the end of the Second World War helped to bring countries to talking terms whenever there are regional or global conflicts. Many times talking has helped to ward off conflicts, but at other times it has resulted in nothing and wars have raged on, with enormous loss to human life and ecological capital.
What I am interested in writing about are the so-called Non-Aligned Countries, which call themselves the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). I will use the example of Uganda to show how difficult it is to be non-aligned in a globalized, interconnected, interdependent World.
Until recently NAM had 120 members, 18 observer countries and 10 international organizations. I don’t know if there has been an increase in observer countries and international organizations, but the World’s newest “independent” State, South Sudan, may have joined the Movement as either 120th or the 121st member.
A country, which is truly nonaligned should be independent politically, socially, economically, culturally, militarily and in terms of trade and business, completely sovereign and completely independent, uninvolved in neocolonial politics or in expansion or extension of imperialist interests within it’s territory or the territories of other NAM members. But which member of NAM is truly non-aligned?
We see Uganda, for example, fighting proxy wars for the USA, which puts it at the center of imperialist or neocolonial politics of domination and exploitation. Clearly Uganda is not nonaligned. However, in 2021 Uganda was chosen to chair the 2023 NAM Conference, which will be held in Kampala. Preparation are already underway with the Uganda Government having given Sudhir Rupaleria the leeway to develop a NAM conference center jointly with it.
So the cardinal question remains: How nonaligned are the nonaligned countries?
During the first cold war, the architects of NAM really tried hard not to align either with the West or the East politically, but their political models betrayed them. They tended to be either capitalist-oriented or socialist oriented or to be slight modifications. It was even more difficult to be nonaligned economically, culturally, militarily and in terms of business and trade.
The Russian crude invasion of Ukraine recently is a good test of the non-allignability of countries. When the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to reprimand Russia, 140 countries voted in favor, 5 voted against and the rest, including Uganda and China abstained. But we know that Russia has been arming Uganda heavily and that that country supported China militarily and politically during it’s Great March Forward. The majority that voted in favor of the motion are those that have been pro-USA.
Now as the Third World War threatens humanity, in case Russia pulls the nuclear button into the war, what is the future of Non-Alligned Movement, which was innovated well after the Second World War?
For God and My Country
The Writer Is a Ugandan Scientist and Environmentalist
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