Jovan Čavoški

FOR A MORE JUST WORLD: YUGOSLAVIA, THE NON-ALIGNED AND THE STRUGGLE FOR THE “NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER” (1973–1976)

Abstract: This article, primarily based on the documents from the Serbian, Indian, US and British archives, as well as on the relevant domestic and international literature, intends to present the origins, course and results of Yugoslavia’s and Non- Aligned Movement’s (NAM) struggle for the “New International Economic Order” during the 1970s. This was the very first systemic challenge launched with an intention of altering the essence and structure of the entire world economic system in the interest of developing countries, then becoming increasingly relevant international actors. 

Keywords: new international economic order, Yugoslavia, Non- Aligned Movement, developing countries, developed countries, North-South, economic development 

Summary: The economic dimension of global non-alignment was always present in the minds of non-aligned leaders ever since the beginning of their international struggle during the 1950s. Nevertheless, due to the intense inter-bloc conflict of the first two decades of the Cold War, security issues had largely dominated the non-aligned agenda. In spite of these overarching tendencies, socialist Yugoslavia and its leader Josip Broz Tito were among the pioneers who early on understood well that without the socio-economic development and the subsequent prosperity it would have been quite impossible for non-aligned countries to play any relevant role in world affairs in the future. Since the non-aligned group had extricated itself from a systemic crisis of the late 1960s, shadowed by a parallel rise of the superpower détente, primarily marked by bloc cooperation and accommodation, as well as by the overall lessening of tensions, the historical moment was ripe enough for the socio-economic agenda of non- alignment to gain the upper hand and become the central orientation of the newly-established NAM. Utilizing the fallout from the OPEC oil embargo in the late 1973, the NAM had proclaimed to the world its new global initiative, the so-called “New International Economic Order” (NIEO). This concept was supposed to initiate the overhaul of the entire global economic and financial system based on the principles of justice and equality, primarily acting in the interest of developing countries, thus also triggering concurrent political changes. Furthermore, this was the most serious systemic challenge launched by the Third World against Western hegemony in recent decades, one that shook the very foundations of the Cold War order, while increasingly affecting the well-being and prosperity of the Global North. The essentials of this entire concept were to introduce new trade practices, exercise nationalization of strategic raw materials, boost South-South trade, enhance protectionism, as well as set up alternative financial institutions to the existing ones, thus providing the most deprived members of the international community with a strong leverage to elevate their respective positions and gain equal standing vis-à-vis the richest ones. In all these activities, Yugoslavia exercised the key role, together with some other nations, above all Algeria. While the West was temporarily thrown off balance with this diplomatic offensive, the NAM was simultaneously gaining ground on a number of crucial issues, however, as the Western powers consolidated their position, in response affecting unity between the rich and poor NAM members, the NIEO juggernaut was finally left out of steam, thus ending in a failure. Nevertheless, in spite of its downsides, the NIEO was also harbinger of new winds of Third World independence and emancipation that continue to drive its politics until nowadays.