The Yugoslav Non-Alignment: Pragmatic, Global, Ambitious and - European Description Event

Speaker: Professor Tvrtko Jakovina,
Affiliation: Department of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb; MIREES, Universita di Bologna

In my paper I will explain the genesis of the Yugoslav separate road during the Cold War from the 1950s: why Socialist Yugoslavia was the founder and prime mover of the Movement of Non-aligned Countries (NAM), and how it was possible to coordinate a multi-country organisation of nations from four continents. Even more miraculously, how it was possible to lead an organized, consistent policy for more than several decades in a country (or part of the world) where inconsistencies have been the rule, not the exception. Finally, the Non-aligned policy of Yugoslavia was pragmatic and financially – mostly - very feasible. I will concentrate on two periods of its development: (1) the genesis - the very beginning of the NAM; and (2) the final phase of the Cold War. In the latter period, Yugoslavia was host to the last Cold War summit of the NAM as well as promoting its own non-aligned position in the context of the Helsinki process as one of the most active among the Neutral and Non-aligned countries (NN Group).