Non-Aligned Movement

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Status Brief
History/Origins:

Developmental Milestones/Developments to Date:

Current Assessment/State of the Field:

Problems/Challenges:

Proposals:

2008

Afrasiabi, Kaveh, L., “Iran Sanctions Hit the Wrong Target,Asia Times, Jan. 25, 2008. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA25Ak03.html Last checked Oct. 18, 2009.

  1. “Indeed, this much is clear by examining the poor logic of renewed attempts to toughen Iran sanctions on the part of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China) plus Germany – the Five plus One – reportedly agreeing in their last meeting in Berlin on Tuesday t odraft a new resolution.  … [Which will] impose new travel bans, certain ‘asset freezes’ as well as calls for ‘vigilance’ with respect to the transfer of ‘banned material’ for sensitive nuclear activities, and ‘monitoring’ of the sanctions regime.”
  2. “The latest draft UN resolution’s provisions for ‘travel bans’ simply lack a sound strategic design, rigorous monitoring and enforcement mechanism and will likely fail to generate international cooperation and compliance.”
  3. “such UN initiatives will likely backfire on the UN and diminish its standing, particularly among the majority of the world’s population who belong to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), given NAM’s solid support of Iran’s nuclear rights.”
  4. “Resolution 1747, while providing a short list of several scientists and heads of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps as intended targets for a travel ban, [cite omitted] nonetheless opens a loophole by stating ‘except when such travel is for activities directly related to items in certain sub-paragraphs.  One such exception deals with religious pilgrimage, another deals with Iran’s non-proliferation sensitive nuclear activities.”
  5. “There is always the availability of false passports and travel documents and the challenges of effective customs and border monitoring, particularly by Iran’s neighbors. [cite omitted] Then there is a lack of incentives for cooperation by other states, especially those which are critical of the US-led sanctions on Iran and which agree with Iran that these measures have the character of ‘psychological warfare.'”
  6. “the question arises as to the grounds on which poor scientists who simply follow orders should be penalized, and their freedom to travel curtailed.”

Academia, Misconduct, Iran, U.S. Foreign Policy, Nonproliferation, Non-Aligned Movement

2012

George, Marcus, “Iran hails Non-Aligned summit as diplomatic coup against West,” Reuters, august 23, 2012. Available at http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/23/us-iran-nam-idUSBRE87M16F20120823?feedType=RSS Last checked August 24, 2012.

  1. ”The Islamic Republic’s three-year tenure of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which starts on Sunday, is a chance for Tehran to elevate its international standing as the United States seeks to cripple its economy and isolate it diplomatically over its nuclear program.”
  2. ”Although many analysts say the movement, set up in 1961 to counter big power domination of international relations, has waned since the end of the Cold War, the diplomatic spotlight will give Tehran an opportunity to show Washington has failed to cut it off from the rest of the world.”
  3. ”Around 35 heads of state or government are attending from the movement’s wide membership that stretches from developing giants such as India to tiny Caribbean islands.”
  4. ”’Hosting and chairing NAM has a lot of benefits. It’s the basis for continuing political influence over a significant group of developing nations for three years,’ said Professor Peter Willetts of City University.”
  5. ”Willetts’ analysis of a U.N. General Assembly vote on August 3 condemning the Syrian government’s use of force against its own people showed that 70 of the 120 NAM members voted in favor and only 8 voted with Syria, Iran, China and Russia.”
  6. ”’Given NAM members have a long history of opposing interference the internal affairs of developing countries, this is an extraordinary demonstration of the revulsion felt by the majority towards the violence in Syria,’ he (Willetts) said.”
  7. ”’It may succumb to the temptation to use the movement for its own purposes and cause massive disfunctionalism in the organization. Moderate members won’t want NAM to be hijacked,’ he said.
  8. ”There is little doubt that Iran wants to reconstruct NAM into a more muscular political tool. Iranian media have been full of announcements from officials saying Tehran would breathe new life into it to challenge ‘Western domination’.”

Non-Aligned Movement, Iran, Developing Countries, Syria, China, Russia