Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, an international groupation established to maintain independence of countries beyond Eastern and Western Bloc from the major Cold War powers. Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, hosted the First Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in September 1961 and the Ninth Summit in September 1989.

Non-alignment was a cornerstone of Yugoslavia's Cold War foreign policy and ideology.^[1] As the only socialist state in Europe outside the Eastern Bloc, and one with strong economic ties to Western Europe, Yugoslavia pursued a careful policy of balancing and equidistance^[2] between the United States, the Soviet Union, and China. This stance together with active nonaligned multilateralism was seen as a collective safeguard of the country's political independence.^[3] The Non-Aligned Movement also provided Yugoslavia with additional diplomatic flexibility, contrasting with neutral states such was Finland at the time, whose policies were more constrained by great power influences, a phenomenon often referred to as Finlandization.^[4] Yugoslavia's leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement granted it a disproportionately influential role in Cold War diplomacy, elevating its global standing beyond its comparatively modest population and economic size, and military power, with some authors even describing it as a "third diplomatic power" during certain moments of the Cold War, particularly in the Global South issues.^[5]

The end of the Cold War and the subsequent dissolution of Yugoslavia raised questions about the future of the Non-Aligned Movement. However, the movement's continuity was ensured through the pragmatic leadership of Indonesia during this period.^[6] Today, the archives in Belgrade and the rest of former Yugoslavia remain largely untapped but often vital for Cold War historians, offering unique insights due to the extensive documents produced and information collected by Yugoslav diplomats and intelligence services during that time.^[7]