Last week, leaders of Iran, Iraq and North Korea - the notorious trio that make up US President George W. Bush's 'axis of evil' - met in Kuala Lumpur.
Was Malaysia hosting a secret conclave of evildoers hatching nefarious plots? Nothing so exciting. It was the triennial summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a body that many people feel has reached the end of its usefulness. Before representatives arrived from around the world, there was much soul-searching as to how the body, formed during the Cold War, can remain relevant in a world with only one superpower.
In fact, the heyday of the movement was, ironically, before its formal establishment in 1961 in Belgrade. Those who inspired the movement were such leaders as Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and Sukarno of Indonesia.
The movement was spawned by the Bandung Conference of 1955, when 29 Asian and African leaders discussed their fate in a world marked by the struggle between the Soviet Union and the US. The movement's membership expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s in the wake of decolonisation.
Today, Yugoslavia - where the movement was founded - is no more. The former Yugoslavia is now five separate countries, none of which has shown interest in joining the NAM. Cyprus, whose Archbishop Makarios was a NAM co-founder, is about to join the European Union, and continued membership in NAM may be unlikely. The same is true of Malta. But the flow is not entirely one way. There were two new members in Kuala Lumpur - East Timor, St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Clearly, the NAM continues to have its attraction for certain countries - primarily the smaller, poorer and weaker ones. With 116 members, it accounts for almost two-thirds of the United Nations membership. Historically, the group, which includes communist Cuba and North Korea, was more non-aligned with the West than with the Soviet bloc.
This political predilection was evident in Kuala Lumpur. The leaders of the NAM, while calling on Iraq and the UN to 'intensify their search of a lasting, just and comprehensive solution to all outstanding issues', was noticeably hostile to the US.
