NON-ALIGNMENT MOVEMENT (CONTINUED)
NAM’s Role in International Relations
NAM played a limited role in supporting the OPEC price rise, in the formation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the formation of the Group of 77 and articulating the New International Economic Order.
NAM has grown in size and can potentially be very influential but it has been unable to fulfill its lofty objectives and thus stands discredited. Most of the member states, which are a part of it, do not use the NAW platform to resolve disputes nor do they contribute much effort to making it more effective.
Yet the need for peaceful coexistence and better North-South relations makes the need for NAM even more urgent with
its visionary blend of idealism and realism.
Criticism of NAM
NAM has failed to help promote peace and many of its members have been involved in bloody internal and external violence (for example the civil war in Cambodia, or the war between Iran and Iraq).
NAM has also been unable to bear on lingering disputes like the ME conflict and the problems in Kashmir causing tensions between Pakistan and India and in the Cyprus which is resulting in tensions between Turkey and Greece.
There is a dichotomy between what NAM leaders preach and practice; often they have adopted stances in the UN at variance with consensus developed in NAM.