The Hindu Business Line : Fading sheen of non-alignment

On the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the US-India Business Council, the US Secretary of State, Ms Condoleezza Rice, had a few unpalatable pronouncements to make on the demerits of non-alignment — a topic which, one would have thought, would have been the farthest from the minds of the audience. Her thesis was that the conditions which might once have lent some weight to the idea were no longer there.

In her view, the need now was for all countries to join hands “on a global scale, to support opportunity and prosperity and justice and dignity and health and education and freedom and democracy”, and to work for “a world that is freer, a world that is more prosperous, and a world that is more just.”

It is for the world community as a whole, she said, to rise to the challenge of striving together in a spirit of multilateralism, but based on common values, to shape an international order in accordance with those values. In that sense, she felt that non-alignment had lost its meaning and relevance.

It is but natural that this should prompt a rejoinder from the Indian side. Though the official of the Ministry of External Affairs tried to put on a brave face in defending the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the case for keeping it going is fast losing its force.

True, in the context of the Cold War, it made sense to keep a distance from either bloc and the associated military pacts. Countries at various stages of development and unable to stand up singly to arm-twisting by either of the superpowers found safety and strength in numbers by forming part of the collective entity of NAM, and making known their independent assessment of events and developments in the world of vital concern to them.

Global village

The common accusation even in those days was that when it suited them some of those notionally non-aligned countries showed a pronounced tilt in the direction of the Soviet Union. Even assuming, as claimed by India’s official spokesperson, that it played a ‘significant role in ending apartheid and colonialism’, the mission stands accomplished, and there are few issues now that generate the kind of ideological fury of old times. Revolutions in the fields of knowledge, communications and technology, and the velocity, volume and variety of transactions in every sphere have reduced the world to the size of a global village. Globalisation and free market economy are the goals to which all countries are wedded.

On the other hand, there are any number of countries in the NAM itself whose policies show scant respect to the ideals and values of democracy, rule of law and human rights. India, certainly, can have no reason to be proud of being a member of such a motley group. If it is South-South cooperation that India is keen on, there are a variety of official and non-official channels for bringing it about. To keep a mechanism running just to pass similarly worded resolutions at its summits denouncing American imperialism and pre-emptive wars and demanding increased aid and ‘humanitarian intervention’ does not seem worth the expense and effort.

As a perceptive commentator (Dr Sumit Ganguly, Professor of Political Science and the Director of the India Studies Institute at Indiana University) puts it, “...it is doubtful that the NAM will have the slightest impact on the course of global politics. At best, its exhortations will be ignored in the councils of global power. At worst, it will only convince its detractors that it has again failed to provide any meaningful suggestions for addressing genuine global ills such as poverty, hunger, disease and the continuing scourge of war.”

B. S. RAGHAVAN

More Stories on : Foreign Relations | Offhand

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Fading sheen of non-alignment

Toys lead to US-China trade squabbles

Good rain!

Measuring happiness

Shift in RBI strategy to fight inflation?

Stock market on a high — Lack of euphoria, a sign of maturity

The engineer behind the giant

Civil service reform

Water harvesting