Performing solidarity: whiteness and status-seeking in the non-aligned world

Abstract

The 1955 Afro-Asian Summit at Bandung is regarded as a pivot in the formation of Third Worldism and of coloured solidarity against Western colonialism and global white supremacy. But while this anti-imperialist spirit was no doubt present at Bandung, so were many other spirits, including those of Cold War realpolitik. We consider the different meanings of Bandung by examining the critical role Yugoslavia played in the rise of the Non-Aligned Movement in years that followed the summit. Drawing on primary historical documents, we show that Yugoslav leaders consistently failed to appreciate the racism of the international society and their own racialised privilege in it. They did appreciate, however, that performing solidarity with the decolonised and decolonising nations would bring major status rewards to Yugoslavia in the context of the East–West showdown. That self-consciously anti-imperialist and anti-colonial positions can be thickly enveloped in white ignorance suggests the need for more critical International Relations analyses of race, racism and racialised international hierarchies.