ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NON ALIGNED MOVEMENT

End of Vietnam War: Due to pressure from the non-aligned movement, the Vietnam War eventually ended in 1975.  This was an ideological war between the capitalist bloc.  The USA suffered a great loss in this war.

Independence: Colonized countries, which suffered oppression and exploitation such as Namibia, South Africa, got their independence.  Namibia became independent under SWAPO on 21st March 1990.  Then Mozambique on 6/7/1975, Zimbabwe on 18th April 1980 and South Africa on 10th May 1992.

Withdraw of foreign troops: In 1976, the French who used to occupy Mayotte Islands of the Comoros withdrew as a result of pressure from the non-aligned movement.  In 1985, the Nicaragua was finally relieved from the USA imperialism.

End of Arab-Israel conflict: Lots of peace efforts through the signing of treaties with the initiative of the non aligned have gone into the solving of the Israel-Arab conflict which started many years back.

Trade promotion: It has also promoted trade among the member’s states.  The poor members of the non-aligned cooperate with the richer members like Cuba, Brazil, India, etc.  This was the consequence of increased trade between the members in the 1970s while that with the former masters declined. This also led to the formation or regional trade organizations such as the PTA. ECOWAS, etc.

Reduction of Military bases: Through pressure mounted by the movement, the number of military bases has reduced. It has also enabled the member countries to acquire technical, economic and military assistance as well as capital investment.

End of Iran-Iraq war: It also helped in bringing about the end of the Iraq-Iran war in 1988 after eight years of serious clashes.

Condemnation of Nuclear weapons: The movement has always condemned the arms race and called for disarmament.  The consequence has been the strategic arms Limitation Talks (SALT).  There were talks on SALT 1 and SALT 2 and a series of non-proliferation of the treaties.

Creation of a nuclear free zone: Due to non-aligned pressure, the creation of nuclear free zone treaty was successful at least on the Pacific.  Following the nuclear plant disaster at Chernobyl on April 26th, 1986, two nuclear accident conventions were adopted on 26th September 1986 under the Atomic Energy Agreement.

End of Arab-Israel conflict: Also prescribed plans of the Arabs' league to end the conflict of Arab-Israel continued. The freedom of international associations and condemnation of aggression and intervention of big powers - The non-aligned movement through resolutions and condemnations have been instrumental in bringing about peace in crisis-ridden areas worldwide.

Weaknesses Of The Non Aligned Movement

Poverty: One of the biggest problems arises from the fact that the members of the non- aligned movement are poor and formerly colonies.  They are the third world nations, which experienced oppression and exploitation from decade to decade.

Attachment to Soviet Union: Due to political and economic inability, the poor members find themselves inevitably looking for foreign aid from the big powers yet they do not want to associate with them. The communist bloc for instance, was instrumental in the fight for independence. It financed, gave moral and logistical support to many developing countries.

Neo-colonialism: It has found it hard to make members condemn and abandon the neo-colonialism in the independent poor states.  For instance, we have the Anglophone and Francophone states which continue to have direct dealings with the former colonial masters.

Poor economies: Poverty has made the members of the movement vulnerable to the scheming of the powerful exploitative states.  Financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF have greatly influenced the economies of the non-aligned members. The same influence has infiltrated into the politics of these members.  Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda are examples.

Ideological differences: In countries such as Cuba, Libya and the Latin America, ideological imbalance has infiltrated too much such that communism is more evident for instance in Cuba.  Some leaders within the non-aligned have developed differences. Libya, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda have many issues which divide them. In 1990, Gadaffi accused the movement for watching on while the USA was molesting the government of Libya while Iran stormed out the meeting simply because Iraq was not blamed for starting the war, and using chemical weapon on Iran.

Failure to isolate: It also at times failed to safeguard the sovereignty of some of its member states.  For instance, despite threats, on its neighbours by South Africa, some continued to interact politically and economically with South Africa.

Regional problems: Has also failed to address its self to regional problems.  Example is the India/Pakistan poor relations, the Iran-Iraq war that took eight years. Today, Yugoslavia has been reduced to ruins as though it was not a member of the movement

Coups: Its failure to control coups and condemn military leadership and impose sanctions has been one of the major setbacks.  Many countries like Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sudan, Somali, Rwanda, Chad, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Gambia, Togo, etc have been experiencing the worst military leadership ever known.

Failure to liberate some countries: Some liberation fronts have failed to come near any success such as the Spanish Sahara organization (POLISARIO) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

No economic order: It has also failed to achieve the New World economic order despite being top in the agenda.  Member states will continue trading with non-members and worse still, with the former colonizers.  The result has been manipulation by the donor nations economically and socially.

Ignorance and disease: The third world countries have not moved away from ignorance, poverty and disease, phenomena that are no longer known in the developed countries.

Mass media: In the field of mass media, a lot is desired because the super powers are still leading and the propaganda has continued to dominate more especially the capitalist bloc now that the socialist bloc is in tatters.

ADVANTAGES OF NON ALIGNMENT

It enables countries to exercise influence with world affairs, which would not be possible for a single country.

Member countries can seek economic, technical and military and anywhere without strings attached.

Promotes self-reliance so that poor countries realized their real political and economic independence. Non alignment enables a country to act according to its best judgement.

It brings about mutual reliance between weak and strong countries.

It is an umbrella under which widely differing nations can find communication for views such as anti-colonialism, disarmament, and eradication of poverty, ignorance and diseases.

In a country where ethnic differences that can be exploited by foreigners do exist, non-alignment helps to emphasize independent foreign policy.

DISADVANTAGES OF NON ALIGNMENT

·        Problems concerning different social and political systems of member states.

·        Territorial conflicts are very common.

·        Foreign assistance does not come in steadily due to isolation.

·        Failure to stick on one country’s principles.

·        Playing off one block against the other is risky.

·        Cooperation among developing countries may lead to failure to copy good aspects of development from rich countries.

·        Member states are poor to avoid interdependence with big powers.

·        Internal problems within nations attract foreign interference.

·        Ideological conflicts still exist as a problem.

·        The absence of a unified military command to solve the third world military conflicts has forced the poor country to seek the UN assistance e.g. in the Congo crisis of 1960-63 and 2000.

·        The end of the cold war politics affected the performance of the NAM. USA remained a unipolar power dictating world policies such as the adoption of multi-party political system, liberalisation and privatisation. Therefore African states in order to attract American aid have only remained with the alternative dancing to her tunes.

·        Perhaps the demise of the original architects of the NAM has undermined it's existence and performance. J. Nehru it's flag bearer in Asia died in 1964, Nasser of Egypt in Africa 1970 and Tito of Yugoslavia in Europe 1980.