Once upon a time, there was the Non-Aligned Movement. Formulated in 1955 in Bandung in Indonesia as a grouping of states that were neither part of the West nor the Communist bloc, it seemed a noble idea at the time. People really did think that it could act as both a voice for the developing world and promote growth among its members. In the end, however, it was a failure, a victim of the end of the Cold War with no further relevance. The widespread rejection of the Socialist model, which so many nonaligned states had adopted, so spectacularly failed to deliver prosperity and growth or even justice.
But if the very words “Non-Aligned Movement” have become indelibly associated with failure, the need for such a movement embodies in those words is as strong as ever. Just because the international economic order is now firmly ensconced in free-market ideology does not mean that the West — especially the US — should be able to dominate the world, economically or politically. Today, the concern in the non-Western world is not about colonialism and imperialism. Attempts to control and dominate through economic means are just as real. They come mainly from the West and they have to be resisted because alongside Western economic interests there is an accompanying Western paradigm that both wittingly and unwittingly too often tramples over the social, political and economic interests of the rest of the world. That is why a new nonaligned movement is necessary — a nonaligned movement that not only has a political voice but is capable of fostering economic growth among its members.
There are similar movements, such as the increasingly powerful G-77 group that consists largely of developing nations. Last month it managed to block UN reforms that G-77 members saw as satisfying only a Western agenda. But the G-77 is largely reactive, not proactive; it is not an engine of non-Western world growth.
A vision of such a movement can, however, be glimpsed in the recent trips to India and China by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the visits to Saudi Arabia by the leaders of the Philippines and China, and even in the meeting in Jeddah recently of the Saudi-Indian Business Network. These visits and meetings are about trade, investment and doing business together — as partners and equals. No one questions that India and China are economic superpowers in the making; but so too is Saudi Arabia. Energy is the economic lifeblood of the world today and Saudi Arabia is at the heart of this vital system. The closest economic ties with India, with China, with the Philippines and other such countries are needed; they will be the path to an economic growth for all concerned, independent of the West and its interests, independent of the hegemonic multinationals, independent of health care systems that serve pharmaceutical industries, lobbyists and bribed public officials more than they serve patients.
With nonaligned growth comes an ability to stand up, not as a rival to the West but on equal terms with it, and thereby able to promote a different worldview.
