The Non-Aligned movement had earlier in the 60s played a very useful role in preventing the cold war from escalating and counselling moderation to the superpowers.
The 70s witnessed comparatively a tension-free world not those flash points did not exist, we had them all over the world. Unfortunately for us the decade of 80s opened rather ominously.
There were a number of developments which could have brought the world to the verge of a crisis. The Soviet Union tried to grab Afghanistan by force, the Poles decided to follow a more liberal path to socialism, there were serious trends towards destabilisation in the Middle East and above all the Persian Gulf was literally on fire.
Image Source:darkroom.baltimoresun.com
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Another element which complicated the situation was the Reagan presidency in the United States. The septuagenarian US President was not interested in detente; he had complicated the world situation by undoing the good work done by President Jimy Carter in the fields of human rights, rapprochement with the USSR and softer and more liberal policies vis-a-vis the developing countries.
The United States invaded a very small state Grenada in Nov. 1983, and had also stepped up the US presence in Central America. Under the circumstances, the non-aligned countries had a significant role to play. The effort was to prevent the superpowers from waging their conflicts through proxy on other soils.
The decade of the 90s witnessed detente with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and collapse of communism. With President Bush in ascendancy and his obsession with WMD, the scars of cold war were likely to emerge. Under the circumstances the NAM may have to play a pivotal role once again in the 21st century.