“In a world of intensifying great-power rivalry and economic coercion, the spirit of Non-Alignment is more relevant today than at any point since the Cold War.” Critically examine.
(15 Marks)
Answer
The return of US-China competition and economic weaponisation through tariffs and sanctions has recreated the structural conditions that made non-alignment rational in the first place. K. Subramanian argued NAM was a sound realpolitik strategy for balancing foreign policy amid superpower dominance. That logic has intensified, not weakened.
The Case for Renewed Relevance
India's behaviour confirms this. In 2025, India resisted US tariffs as high as 50% designed to pressure abandonment of Russian oil, conceding only on its own terms.
T.V. Paul's concept of soft balancing captures what India practises: using diplomacy, institutions, and norms to check dominant power without confrontation.
Simultaneously engaging the Quad, BRICS, SCO, and I2U2 without binding commitments is non-alignment's core logic adapted to multipolarity.
Shyam Saran calls this a modern adaptation of non-alignment: preserving independence while building partnerships.
The Limits of the Analogy
Yet equating multi-alignment with Cold War non-alignment overstates the continuity.
Raja Mohan argues NAM suffers a crisis of identity and agenda deprivation, obstructing India's participation in necessary strategic coalitions.
India's defence interoperability agreements with the US — LEMOA, BECA, COMCASA — Quad military exercises, and semiconductor partnerships represent a depth of engagement Nehru's equidistance would never have permitted.
Jaishankar frames this as multiple engagements in a multipolar world rather than non-alignment, suggesting the spirit survives but the doctrine does not.
Assessment
The spirit of non-alignment — sovereign decision-making and refusal of bloc subordination — remains relevant precisely because great-power coercion has returned.
But NAM itself, with 120 members, no secretariat, and no capacity for collective action, is not the vehicle carrying that spirit forward.
India practises non-alignment's logic through BRICS, Quad, G20, and bilateral FTAs, not through NAM. The relevance is real; the institution is not.
