UN General Assembly’s fifteenth session opens amid rapid decolonization

The three leaders issued a joint statement advocating peaceful coexistence and independence in international relations. The meeting was an important precursor to the movement, though it did not yet...

Israel invaded Egypt, followed by British and French military intervention. The attack on a recently nationalized canal demonstrated how former imperial powers sought to retain control over...

Soviet troops entered Budapest and suppressed the uprising. The episode exposed a tension for anti-imperialist diplomacy: opposition to Western intervention did not erase the need to criticize...

Activists and representatives from across Africa and Asia met to build solidarity beyond formal governments. The gathering linked national liberation to popular movements, labor, culture and...

African political parties, trade unions and liberation movements assembled to coordinate the struggle against colonial rule and apartheid. Its people-centered pan-Africanism overlapped with, but was...

Resolution 1514 (XV) declared that colonial subjection violated fundamental rights and called for an end to colonialism. Anti-colonial states helped make decolonization a central UN question, though...

Delegates debated who could participate and what non-alignment meant. The discussions exposed competing priorities: broad independence from both blocs, versus a sharper focus on anti-colonial struggle...

The preparatory meeting set criteria to distinguish non-alignment from formal alliance membership and to support anti-colonial policy. These criteria reflected a negotiated coalition rather than a...

Twenty-five countries attended the first summit. Leaders sought an independent role in world affairs, opposed colonialism and racism, and pressed for disarmament and peaceful coexistence. The...

The summit declaration called for ending colonialism, reducing international tensions and preventing nuclear war. It asserted that newly independent states could shape world policy without becoming...