Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)

📌 Background & Key Features

Origin: Emerged during the Cold War as a forum for newly decolonised states refusing to formally align with the US-led or USSR-led blocs.
Philosophy: Not "neutrality" but strategic autonomy — independent judgment on each issue based on merit, not bloc loyalty.
India's role: Nehru was a principal architect; India hosted the 7th NAM Summit (New Delhi, 1983) with Indira Gandhi as Chair.
Core objectives: decolonisation, opposition to imperialism/racism, nuclear disarmament, and a New International Economic Order (NIEO).
Post-Cold War debate: With the bipolar world gone, critics call NAM ideologically redundant; supporters argue it survives as a platform for South-South cooperation on climate finance, terrorism and pandemic equity.
NAM 2.0 vs Multi-alignment: India today practices issue-based "multi-alignment" (Quad + SCO + BRICS + G20 simultaneously) rather than classic non-alignment, prompting debate on whether India has quietly outgrown NAM.

Founded	1961, Belgrade (Yugoslavia)
Founding leaders	Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Tito (Yugoslavia), Nasser (Egypt), Sukarno (Indonesia), Nkrumah (Ghana) — the ‘Founding Fathers’
Basis	Panchsheel (1954) + Bandung Conference (1955)
Members today	120 member states + observers; largest grouping of developing nations after the UN

India skipped/downgraded participation at recent NAM summits (e.g. sent junior-level representation to the 19th Summit, Kampala, Jan 2024), fuelling the "India's growing indifference to NAM" debate seen in UPSC 2025 PSIR paper.
NAM continues to be invoked at the UN on issues like Gaza ceasefire calls and reform of global financial architecture, testing whether the bloc can still produce consensus among 120 diverse states.
Scholars increasingly frame India's current approach as "strategic autonomy 2.0" — deep engagement with US-led Quad while retaining Russia ties and BRICS/SCO membership, seen as the practical successor to Cold War non-alignment.

Founded: 1961, Belgrade (Yugoslavia)
Founding leaders: Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Tito (Yugoslavia), Nasser (Egypt), Sukarno (Indonesia), Nkrumah (Ghana) — the ‘Founding Fathers’
Basis: Panchsheel (1954) + Bandung Conference (1955)
Members today: 120 member states + observers; largest grouping of developing nations after the UN

Year	Question	Marks
2013	“NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) is relevant in a unipolar world as well.” Comment.	15
2016	Discuss India’s contribution to and continuing relevance of the Non-Aligned Movement. (PSIR-II)	10
2025	Does the Non-Aligned Movement have any future in the wake of India’s growing indifference towards it? (PSIR-II)	10