Non‐alignment: Past, present and future

This essay examines the impact of recent changes in the global strategic, political and economic equations on the Non‐Aligned Movement. In the simpler world of the two superpowers, the NAM role, too, was simpler and the emerging world is more complex. Weaker, disadvantaged, powers in an uncertain world cannot afford to give away or sacrifice their unity, (or at least their togetherness) and ability to act in concert, however limited that ability. With that in mind, a post‐apartheid, non‐racial South Africa will need to carve out its own niche in Africa. The path of non‐alignment could lighten the task.