Non-Aligned Movement

Established: Through the course of an increasingly structured series of conferences comprising states that describe themselves as not aligned with either one of the world’s great powers (originally perceived as the Soviet Union and United States), the first of which met September 1–6, 1961, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Purpose: To promote a “transition from the old world order based on domination to a new order based on freedom, equality, and social justice and the well-being of all”; to pursue “peace, achievement of disarmament, and settlement of disputes by peaceful means”; to search for “effective and acceptable solutions” to world economic problems, particularly the disparities in the level of global development”; to support self-determination and independence “for all peoples living under colonial or alien domination and foreign occupation”; ...