As I wrote in an article on “Peace in a globalised world: Does it always mean the absence of war?” World is so interconnected and interdependent that globalisation is proceeding with the agency of trade and technology, especially the World Wide Web or Internet that it is foolhardy to talk of independence or nonalignment.

However, political powers are resisting Internet and trying to role back into the 20^th century when the World Wide Web was emerging. Despite the increasingly intricate interconnections and interdependences, some countries are stuck with the idea of nonalignment.

The cardinal question is: Is Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) still relevant?

As Basanta Nirola asked in his article “Is Non-Alignment Movement Still Relevant?” citing Gosh Peu (2014) in Globescope on September 6, 2020, it can be said that NAM’s contribution can be best assessed in terms of six Ds, namely, Decolonisation, Detente, Disarmament, Development, Democratisation and Dissemination.

The ten principles of NAM agreed at the Afro-Asian Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in1955 are:

• Respect for fundamental human rights and of the objectives of the Charter of the United Nations on Human Rights
• Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations
• Recognition of equality among all races and of the equality among all nations, both large and small
• Non-intervention or non-interference into the internal affairs of another country
• Respect of the right of every nation to defend itself, either individually or collectively in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations
• Non-use of collective defence pacts to benefit the specific interests of any of the great powers
• Non-use of pressures by any country against other countries
• Refraining from carrying out or threatening to carry out aggression or from using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another country
• A peaceful solution of all international conflicts in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations
• Promotion of mutual interests and cooperation

Although the government of President Tibuhaburwa Museveni has violated some of these principles over the past 38 years in power, and currently paying billions of dollars to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the involvement of its soldiers in the blatant theft of its resources and killing of its people and other violations of human rights in that country before and soon after the overthrow of President Mobutu in the late 1990s, Uganda is hosting the 19th Summit of the Nonaligned Movement from January 15-20, 2024 in Kampala.

The theme of the summit will be “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence”. The Summit will follow closely after the meeting of Speakers of Parliaments in the Commonwealth. It should also be remembered that before the African Union adopted globalisation in 2002 as the pathway to Africa’s development, the Uganda government was the first country in Africa in 2000 to embrace globalisation without asking many questions.

• A Tell report / By Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula, a former professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Makerere University, Uganda