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Yugoslavia Nonalignment
Beginning with its split from the Soviet Bloc in 1948,
Yugoslavia sought appropriate alliances to ensure its security.
As early as 1953, relations were established with nonaligned
Asian countries. In 1954 Tito suggested, then withdrew from, a
Balkan Pact alliance with Greece and Turkey. When the colonial
empires of the West European nations broke up in the decades
following, Yugoslavia became a leader of the bloc of new nations
created by that process. The former colonies considered the
economic and political success of the Yugoslav nonalignment
policy a positive model, and Tito joined Jawaharlal Nehru of
India, Sukarno of Indonesia, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Gamal
Abdel Nasser of Egypt as founders of the Nonaligned Movement in
the mid-1950s. Founding principles of that movement were
opposition to all foreign intervention and peaceful coexistence.
The official nonaligned position of Yugoslavia was declared at
the Belgrade Conference of Nonaligned Nations in 1961. In the
1950s and 1960s, Yugoslavia's position gave it international
prestige because both the United States and the Soviet Union
required support from the growing bloc of independent nations it
led.
Within the nonaligned group, Yugoslavia leaned strongly
toward the Arab nations and supported the Palestine Liberation
Organization against Israel--mainly because of Tito's friendship
with Nasser and the influence of the large Yugoslav Muslim
population. Tito personified Yugoslavia's international position;
in the 1960s and 1970s, he traveled worldwide to cement relations
in the Third World. Although Nikita Khrushchev had mended Soviet
relations with Yugoslavia in the mid-1950s, that relationship was
threatened by periodic Soviet expansionism, and Tito successfully
sought to balance Western and Soviet influences. Part of that
balancing act was development of close relations with China in
the 1970s; at that time, China was hostile to the Soviet Union
and opening communications with the West, making it an effective
counterbalance for Tito. Yugoslav-Chinese relations remained warm
through the 1980s.
In the 1970s, Yugoslavia became a moderate force in the
Nonaligned Movement, balancing the strong pro-Soviet influence of
Fidel Castro (to whom Tito had initially given strong support).
Castro's election as chairman of the Nonaligned Movement in 1979
was considered a defeat for Tito. Between 1955 and 1979, the
Nonaligned Movement grew from 25 to 117 member countries, largely
because of Tito's leadership. When Tito died in 1980, Yugoslavia
lost its leadership role to Cuba, and the Nonaligned Movement
leaned decidedly toward the Soviet side. But Yugoslavia regained
an important role in the eighth summit meeting (1986) of the
organization. In 1989 the ninth meeting was held in Belgrade, and
Yugoslavia became chairman nation of the movement until 1992. In
the 1980s, the main Yugoslav role in the Nonaligned Movement was
using the provisions of the Helsinki Accords of 1975 to lobby for
easing the Cold War tensions that flared in Europe, and mediating
conflicts between Third World nations such as Iraq and Iran.
Yugoslavia was especially concerned with Middle Eastern events
that endangered its oil supply.
Although emphasis changed somewhat, Tito's nonalignment
policy remained in place for the entire decade following his
death. Although hosting the meeting and regaining chairmanship of
the Nonaligned Movement improved Yugoslavia's international
standing, many Yugoslavs (especially in Croatia and Slovenia)
questioned the value of a leadership position among a group of
impoverished nations long after the initial purpose of the
movement had changed. The credibility of the movement decreased
in the 1980s because of Castro's influence, and by 1990 the
disappearance of monolithic communism from Eastern Europe had
changed the entire definition of nonalignment. Even in Tito's
time, Yugoslavia gained only prestige from its leadership of
Third World countries poorer than itself; it lost much money in
unrepaid loans to those countries. As the 1990s began, domestic
pressures increased to strengthen political and economic ties
with Western Europe, which could provide much-needed economic
aid.
Data as of December 1990
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