NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT FOR BEGINNERS: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST (September 12, 2011)
In your article about the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the non-aligned movement in Belgrade, you say that it used to be a “talking shop” for countries not wanting to join either of the two superpowers of the period, America and the Soviet Union (“Not Dead Yet,” September 10, 2011). It was much more than that, though. Earlier this year you reported on the comeback of Serbia’s arms industry, and in that context you pointed out that former Yugoslavia used the non-aligned movement as the main market for its arms industry (“Bombs Away,” January 8, 2011). You also mentioned that other former republics were joining Serbia in this collective endeavor. It is thus surprising that your current article mentions this connection as if in passing and only in the last paragraph. In particular, you report that the Serbs and other former Yugoslavs used the anniversary to look for deals, especially in arms and construction. Well, that was the very idea behind the movement from the very start, especially from the vantage point of one of its founders—Josip Broz Tito.