Abstract: This paper analyses the specific elements of the Conference of the Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement in Algeria, which made it unique and different in relation to all the summit conferences held until then. At this conference, the process of creating institutional mechanisms for the co-operation among the non-aligned countries was finally completed and the dilemma over the criteria for admission to the Non-Aligned Movement was resolved. The decision to launch an initiative in the UN to establish a new international economic order and the support of the participants of the Conference to the oil exporting countries to use this energy as a weapon in confrontation with industrially developed Western countries - was a lead up to a dangerous escalation of the North-South confrontation and a serious escalation of an energy, and then general monetary and economic crisis.

Key words: non-alignment, institutionalization, Tito, Boumédiène, Algeria, blocs, oil, economic cooperation, radicalism, Coordination Bureau, Permanent Secretariat, North-South