Prospects for Non-Alignment: India's Role

Non-alignment is not a dinosaur. Never less than one-half and now almost two-thirds of the members of the United Nations Organization have styled their approach to external affairs as non-alignment. In the course of the last three decades and more, not one of the non-aligned nations has forsaken it in favour of alignment, not even in the most adverse of circumstances. On the other hand, there have been instances when some aligned countries have opted for non-alignment. The non-aligned countries are no Rip Van Winkles either. Ever alert to the realities of international affairs, they constantly endeavour to effect changes in the international power balance. During the fifties and the sixties, they helped to bring about a change in the international security order in the face of a strident Cold War. Since the beginning of the seventies, they have been working for the setting up of a New International Order (NIO) in all its three major facets, viz., the economic (New International Economic Order), the technological (New International Technological Order) and the informational (New International information Order). Non-alignment, personal preferences notwithstanding, has certainly succeeded to some extent in shaping the international system as it appears today. As the driving force of the resource-rich as also the resource-scarce yet volatile regions of the le tiers monde, 1 non-alignment has almost always evoked extreme reactions, ranging from outright condemantion to lofty praise. However, having to live with non-alignment, it is necessary to ask what course non-alignment would take in the hands of its powerless votaries in the years ahead against the hindsight of what it has achieved so far. This paper endeavours to examine at some length the success and continued relevance of non-alignment with the focus on India.