Introduction

While the Cold War was in progress it was common for people to assume that it was the dominant paradigm that shaped the international system, and that no state, large or small, could fail to be drawn into the bipolar competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.

However, during the years of this monumental conflict some states did attempt to distance themselves from its effects by declaring their neutrality and remaining aloof from both of the Cold War alliance systems. For some states in Europe, such as Switzerland and Sweden, the decision to be neutral was a matter of tradition based on an internationally recognized concept of neutrality that had existed since the sixteenth century. However, for other states, particularly the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa, the desire to remain free of entanglement in the competition between the superpowers represented far more than this. Their rejection of the global Cold War rested not only on their conviction that involvement in this conflict represented an unnecessary threat to their national security, but also on the belief that it directed attention away from the issues that they found most important. Reflecting their own experiences, their priorities were expediting Western decolonization and tackling the causes of economic underdevelopment.

decolonization

The process whereby an imperial power gives up its formal authority over its colonies.

Non-Aligned Movement

The organization founded in 1961 by a number of neutral states which called for a lowering of Cold War tensions and for greater attention to be paid to underdevelopment and to the eradication of imperialism.

Third World

A collective term of French origin for those states that are part of neither the developed capitalist world nor the communist bloc. It includes the states of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and South-East Asia. Also referred to as ‘the South' in contrast to the developed ‘North'.

Warsaw Pact (Warsaw Treaty Organization)

An alliance set up in 1955 under a mutual defence treaty signed in Warsaw by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union. The organization was the Soviet bloc's equivalent of NATO. Albania formally withdrew in 1968. The Warsaw Pact was dissolved in June 1991.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Established by the North Atlantic Treaty (4 April 1949) signed by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. Greece and Turkey entered the alliance in 1952 and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955. Spain became a full member in 1982. In 1999 the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined in the first postCold War expansion, increasing the membership to nineteen countries.

The desire to further their own agenda meant that the activist states in Asia and Africa, such as India, Egypt and Algeria, did not pursue neutrality in isolation, but attempted to form groupings, such as the Non-Aligned Movement, that would allow them to speak with a stronger collective voice. Thus from the 1950s onwards a number of conferences and summits took place that called for the world’s attention to be redirected towards the plight of what came to be known as the ‘Third World’. Specifically, this meant a demand for greater concentration on the economic and social problems caused by underdevelopment. However, whether this attempt to construct a new paradigm could succeed in supplanting the Cold War or whether the competition between the superpowers would define the Third World’s future was to be a matter of much struggle and debate.

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Source: Best Antony. International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Routledge,2008. — 638 p.. 2008

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