The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), it’s capital Belgrade, playing host to the first summit of the NAM in 1961.
Under its leader Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia championed balancing and cautious equidistance when it came to dealing with the two super blocs of the Cold War.
This article will talk at length about the relation between NAM and Yugoslavia within the context of the Civil Services Examination.
Yugoslavia: Role in the foundation of NAM
Yugoslavia was liberated by its own countrymen towards the end of World War II with little assistance from the Red Army or the western allies. Due to this, the new communist leaders of Yugoslavia felt it appropriate to follow a more independent foreign policy. Moreover, the local nature of the resistance movement had lent political legitimacy in the eyes of its various ethnicities.
As a result, the Yugoslav Communist Party under Josip Broz Tito saw themselves as equal partners instead of a subordinate federate, enabling it to pursue its domestic and foreign policy as it saw fit. This did not go down well with Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union due to his weariness of small states asserting too much independence.
The result was an escalation of tensions with Moscow and the 1948 Tito-Stalin split that saw Yugoslavia at odds with the rest of the Eastern Bloc nations an in need to adjust its foreign policy
At first, Yugoslavia aligned itself with the Western Bloc, signing the 1953 Balkan Pact with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members such as Greece and Turkey. The death of Stalin did improve relations with the Soviet Union but its vocal support for the Soviet invasion of Hungary deteriorated its relations with the west. Knowing fully well that it had to look towards new allies elsewhere. The former colonies and mandates were the first choice. Yugoslavia supported Egypt during the Suez Crisis and also developed relations with India. All three would become founding members for the Non-Aligned Movement
During the 1950 session of the United Nations General Assembly session the Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia, Edvard Kardeji asserted that “Yugoslavia cannot accept mankind choosing to be dominated by one power or another”. In a meeting with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi on 22 December 1954, Present Josip Tito signed a joint agreement that a policy of collective peace could be pursued through non-alignment.
What would make Yugoslavia unique is that its Government was communist but its economy was directly linked to the capitalist setup of Western Europe.
To read about the Non-Aligned Movement in detail, visit the linked article.
Yugoslavia’s NAM policies
Yugoslavia kept both the Cold War blocs at an equal arm’s length while questioning the closeness of other members of the movement with these blocs. This was particularly aimed at the Angola and Vietnam’s closeness towards the Soviet sphere of influence on the basis of Lenin’s thesis of the natural identity of interest between Soviet socialism ant the independence struggle of Africa and Asia
Both Yugoslavia and India introduced a large number of amendments in order to fix what they saw as a more pro-Soviet draft of the final declaration of the Havana Conference of the NAM. By 1989 a more equidistant document was put in place.
Yugoslavia also closely cooperated with other neutral countries in Europe such as Finland in order to act as a mediator between the two blocs.
During his international trips to other non-aligned countries, President Tito underlined the need for the Mediterranean to become a zone of peace.
Due to the perception that Yugoslavia was more Eurocentric in its approach, it was criticised as being far too lenient in its support of decolonisation movements around the world. Instead, it was part of the Special Committee on Decolonisation where it was one of the members to urge the committee to make special recommendations in order to convince the United Kingdom in granting independence to its remaining colonies.
Non-Aligned Movement – Yugoslavia: UPSC Notes – Download PDF Here
Yugoslavia after the Cold War
The end of the Cold War led to the Yugoslav Wars which broke up Yugoslavia. The membership in the NAM that was claimed in its name by Serbia and Montenegro was suspended in 1992.
The six former Yugoslav republics consisting of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia are all observer states within the NAM. Neither of them is a full member state within the movement. As of 2020 Croatia, North Macedonia and Slovenia are all members of NATO, while Serbia is in a state of neutrality as far as military matters are concerned. All of are either member states or striving to be member states of the European Union.
Aspirants can find complete information about upcoming Government Exams through the linked article. More exam-related preparation materials will be found through the links given below:
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