Non-Aligned Movement

Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
Member countries   Observer countries
Coordinating Bureau	New York City, New York, U.S.
Membership[1]	121 members 27 observers
Leaders
• Principal decision- making organ	Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries[2]
• Chairperson	Yoweri Museveni
Establishment	1961 in Belgrade as the Conference of Heads of State of Government of Non-Aligned Countries
Website mnoal.org

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization (group of countries) who do not want to be officially aligned with or against any major power bloc (group of countries). In 2024, the movement had 121 members and 27 observers.^[3]

The group was started in Belgrade in 1961. It was created by Yugoslavia's President, Josip Broz Tito, India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's second President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah, and Indonesia's first President, Sukarno. All five leaders believed that developing countries should not help either the Western or Eastern blocs in the Cold War. They also believed that developing countries should not be Capitalist or Communist, but should try to find a different way to help their people.

The Havana Declaration of 1979 said that the purpose of the organization is to help countries keep their "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against Imperialism, Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics."^[4] This means that they wanted to govern their countries without the main capitalist powers nor the major socialist states telling them how.

The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement are nearly two-thirds of the United Nations's members and 55% of the world population.

1. ↑ Cite error: The named reference members was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
2. ↑ Cite error: The named reference organizational was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
3. ↑ "NAM Members & Observers". Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
4. ↑ Fidel Castro speech to the UN in his position as chairman of the non-aligned countries movement 12 October 1979 Archived 11 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine; Pakistan & Non-Aligned Movement Archived 2006-10-02 at the Wayback Machine, Board of Investment - Government of Pakistan, 2003