"While Yugoslav scholars recognize the Bandung Conference as an important milestone in the development of postwar anti-imperialist struggle, it has political and ideological importance in Yugoslavia as a prequel to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Yugoslavia’s critical role in its inception. NAM was not only a central pillar of Yugoslav foreign policy but also an equally critical component of Yugoslav self-understanding of its domestic political project. This chapter examines the conceptual tensions and political failures of that vision. However, it also explores how the vision can serve as a productive foil against which to understand the current global socioeconomic and political conjunctures, and offer resources through which we can struggle against the “nested hegemonies” of the current context. Yugoslavia was not just another communist state; rather, it was a unique sociopolitical enterprise that incarnated the success of national, social, and geopolitical struggles for emancipation. This view was rehearsed in party forums, further elaborated in academic journals, and literally broadcasted to the wider public. Every morning, the opening of TV Kalendar (an “on this day in history”
educational broadcast) showed Tito, Nehru, and Nasser shaking hands on the island of Brioni in 1955, sealing their agreement to found the Non-Aligned Movement. In defending Yugoslavia’s central role in the Third World, commentators
strove to show how Tito’s international strategy and “entire life path” anticipated the concerns and aspirations of Bandung – ahead of Bandung"
