On Giving Substance to Collective Self-Reliance

The central inspirations of non-alignment were political in nature. Nonaligned countries had sought to be independent of the great powers and of their military alliances and blocs. The concept of peaceful co-existence was designed to leave them free to pursue their own economic and social development. For many years, non-aligned countries thought of development primarily in national terms. Each country, acting alone, found itself in a condition of growing dependence on the richer countries. Therefore, it was natural that after the oil crisis of 1973 and the Declaration of the United Nations on the New International Economic Order, collective self-reliance should begin to be seen as the key element in the economic content of non-alignment. While non-aligned countries have continued to stress the dominance of politics above economics, they have increasingly acknowledged that their political goals will only be achieved to the extent economic aims are realized equally by individual countries, by groups of countries, and by all of them together. In this process, the distinction between the economic objectives of non-aligned countries and of “developing countries†in general has virtually disappeared and resolutions of the non-aligned countries have stressed their own role, not separately, but together with “other developing countries.†In considering ways of achieving greater collective self-reliance, therefore, the two combinations, described respectively as the Non-aligned Movement and the Group of 77, can be viewed as one, representing the deeply felt need of all less developed countries both for a more equitable international system and for greater economic and technical co-operation amongst themselves.