Delegates in Zimbabwe for a summit conference of the 101-member Nonaligned Movement have a tricky assignment: they are supposed to show resolute unity in the cause of staying nonaligned. If there is any way to manage that, they haven`t found it.
Even for members, the concept of nonalignment seems a bit hard to grasp. Iran`s President Ali Khamenei, for example, keeps demanding that the organization show its independence by doing exactly what he says, starting with expelling Iraq as ”an agent of superpower imperialism.”
Libya`s Moammar Gadhafi also wants the movement nonaligned his way
–stridently hostile to the United States but smiling winningly toward Moscow. Some members must wonder about the presence of Cuba`s Fidel Castro, whose communist government lives on constant transfusions from the Soviet Union but is there proclaiming his ”nonalignment.”
It is no wonder if delegates are confused about their role. The nonaligned movement is essentially negative. Its theoretical goal is to not do something–to avoid taking a stand, to keep from getting enlisted on the side of one superpower or the other. There may be prudent reasons for this, but it hardly makes for a clear or consistent policy.
The Nonaligned Movement presents a largely blank surface. Naturally, it attracts a lot of graffiti and gang slogans.
