The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members and 17 observer countries.^[1]

The organization was founded in Belgrade in 1961, and was largely the brainchild of Yugoslavia's president, Josip Broz Tito; India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru; Egypt's second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser; Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah; and Indonesia's first president, Sukarno. All five leaders were prominent advocates of a middle course for states in the Developing World between the Western andEastern blocs in the Cold War. The phrase itself was first used to represent the doctrine by Indian diplomat and statesman V.K. Krishna Menon in 1953, at the United Nations.^[3]

In a speech given during the Havana Declaration of 1979, Fidel Castrosaid the purpose of the organization is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics".^[4] The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations's members and contain 55% of the world population. Membership is particularly concentrated in countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World.^[5]