Nonalignment at the Crossroads: ‘Castro Is a Brother, Nasser Is a Teacher but Tito Is an Example’*

Abstract

Between March 1964 and April 1965, Ben Bella, the leader of newly independent Algeria, met twice with Josip Broz Tito, the Yugoslav President and co-founder of the nonaligned movement. The detailed account of the two meetings serves as an analytical platform to highlight the period when the future of the nascent Nonaligned Movement (NAM) hung in balance. In 1964 and 1965, the movement faced existential challenges, and the exchanges between the two leaders provide unique insights into the Third World’s dilemmas, hopes and aspirations. In March 1964, the time of the first meeting, there was still no certainty that there would be a follow-up to the First nonaligned conference, held in Belgrade in September 1961. Although successful, the Belgrade Conference ushered years of painful search for the identity of the new political movement. The second Tito – Ben Bella meeting, held in April 1965, underlined the extent to which the Second Nonaligned Conference, held in Cairo in October 1964, deepened divisions and revealed the absence of clear direction within the nascent movement. Examination of the Tito – Ben Bella meetings, based on inadequately researched Yugoslav transcripts, contributes to the historiography of the Nonaligned Movement and of the underdeveloped world in the Cold War.