The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a collaboration that began formally with a summit conference in Belgrade in 1961, has rarely been studied as a kind of ‘alter’ or ‘prior’ globalization. The partnership between socialist Yugoslavia and states in what we now term the Global South played a key role in processes of decolonization, in reducing the threat of nuclear war in a world dominated by two superpowers and two main blocs, and in the establishment of a new international economic order. Although conceived, very much, as a top-down, inter-state initiative, it created a space for meaningful transnational exchanges in the realm of science, art and culture, architecture and industry that continue to have relevance and impact today.

Revisiting NAM’s work during the Cold War is of much more than mere historical significance. As well as allowing for an understanding of prior globalizations and transnational co-operation otherwise, it offers a unique insight into social, cultural, political and economic imaginaries that challenged a dominant hegemonic order, reworked ‘core-periphery’ relations and, crucially, advocated for self-determination free of both colonial and neo-colonial governmentality.

These dialogues, over four consecutive days, a collaboration between The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, The Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, constitute a forum for discussion of the relevance of historical movements for today’s world not in a narrow sense of direct applicability but, rather, in terms of teasing out lessons that can be learned from the contradictions and complexities of the non-aligned movement. Conceived as a series of interlocking contributions, with an emphasis on debate and disagreement rather than false consensus, the workshop aims to contribute to debates on ‘global Yugoslavia’ and to the study of socialist and decolonial relations.