Nonaligned Imagination

Recovering the literary and intellectual history of anticolonial collaborations

Preoccupied with developing a multiethnic, postcolonial culture and seeking an alternative to Cold War-bloc politics, socialist Yugoslavia turned to the decolonizing countries of the Global South. It forged political, economic, and cultural links with postcolonial states and anticolonial liberation movements through the Non-Aligned Movement, of which it was a founding member in 1961. NAM spanned political and economic systems, uniting members in opposition to superpower politics and around policies of nuclear disarmament, active peaceful coexistence, anticolonialism, and respect for national sovereignty.