In a world torn apart by geopolitical bullying and geoeconomic warfare, great-power conflict and inequality that concentrates wealth and statecraft in the hands of a few, the Bandung Conference is gaining renewed relevance.
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Conference → tear → relevance
The developing world’s momentous meeting in 1955 laid the groundwork for a new international order and South-South cooperation.
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meeting → develop → order
It asked a question that everyone, even rich nations, is asking today: who gets to write the rules of the global economy?
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who → ask → economy
That moment needs retelling.
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moment → need → ?
In 1955, 29 nations of Asia and Africa, former colonies representing more than half the world, met in Bandung, Indonesia, for a conference hosted by President Sukarno.
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nations → represent → Sukarno
Riding on the wave of anticolonial struggles, they agreed on an ambitious framework founded on sovereignty and economic, cultural and political cooperation, elevating the United Nations Charter’s spirit of human rights above militaristic alliances.
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they → rid → alliances
The conference’s most powerful outcome was South-South solidarity: nations and peoples charting a path independent of the two great powers of that time – the United States and the Soviet Union.
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outcome → chart → time
As the “Third World” alliance grew, practical efforts to support decolonisation emerged out of it, including the Non-Aligned Movement and bodies like UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
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efforts → grow → Trade
As a new Al Jazeera film shows, the “Bandung spirit”, despite efforts not to antagonise great powers, was treated as a direct threat.
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spirit → show → threat
Many countries faced crushing pushback for committing to the decolonisation agenda – coups, invasions, economic warfare and debt and austerity crises – that left them beholden to old masters, not their development aspirations.
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that → face → masters
Seventy-one years later, the structures of inequality persist.
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structures → persist → inequality
Despite dramatic growth in parts of the Global South, particularly in East Asia, Global North countries control 69 percent of global wealth while comprising just 20 percent of humanity. Low- and middle-income countries spend on average nearly half their national budgets on debt repayments, mainly to rich creditors in rich countries.
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countries → control → countries
Meanwhile, wealth inequality has soared within nations, concentrating power within small elites while ordinary people struggle.
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people → soar → elites
Just 3,000 billionaires hold wealth equivalent to more than 15 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP).
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billionaires → hold → product
It would be a stretch to suggest that the level of South-South cooperation envisioned at Bandung endures today.
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level → suggest → Bandung
The Economist recently quipped, “A damp squib Bandung anniversary shows a lack of solidarity.”
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anniversary → quip → solidarity
Yet external realities are forcing a reckoning that nostalgia cannot.
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nostalgia → force → reckoning
The powerful are acting with impunity, breaking the brittle cover the so-called rules-based order relied on.
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order → act → cover
The reality is much of the world never accepted the post-World War II order – dominated by powerful nations – as truly legitimate, as the Bandung project demonstrated.
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project → accept → nations
But that order did not need to be legitimate to be unavoidable; the alternatives were too costly.
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alternatives → need → ?
Today, even compliance offers scant security in a world where “might is right”.
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might → offer → world
That is forcing wealthy nations to finally come to terms with what the rest of the world long knew.
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rest → force → world
Countries must not passively accept these conditions.
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Countries → accept → conditions
As Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva put it recently in response to US President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs: “The world has changed; we do not want an emperor.”
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we → put → emperor
At this time of rupture, the Bandung Conference can offer lessons for rethinking the rules of global cooperation.
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Conference → offer → cooperation
First, cooperation alone is value-neutral; the substance matters.
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substance → matter → ?
More cooperation that advances neoliberal priorities, be it among middle powers or poorer nations, is not the answer.
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it → advance → powers
Second, we need much better institutions.
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we → need → institutions
Alongside this, the IMF and the World Bank should be boldly reformed away from reliance on austerity towards addressing inequality and national sovereignty.
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IMF → reform → inequality
Credit groups such as the Paris Club need to be counterbalanced with borrowers’ clubs of poorer nations.
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groups → need → nations
The UNCTAD Borrowers’ Platform, to be launched next month, shows countries can work together to reshape the rules of debt restructuring.
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countries → launch → restructuring
Third, reducing inequality between countries is a partial picture without addressing inequality within and across them.
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reducing → reduce → them
At Bandung, Sukarno warned against “economic control” within nations.
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Sukarno → warn → nations
Every nation must tackle the consolidation of wealth and power among a tiny few, and boldly reduce the gap between the ultrarich and the rest.
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nation → tackle → ultrarich
Raging against major powers abroad while helping the rich exploit the poor at home does not pass the test of economic liberation.
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rich → rag → liberation
Fourth, concrete steps are also needed internationally: a negotiation for a fairer international tax system at the UN that ends tax havens and abuses, efforts to tax the ultrarich everywhere and a rewrite of intellectual property rules to prevent corporate monopolies that can come at a devastating human cost.
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that → need → cost
Fifth, there should also be new trade formations that do not give special powers to foreign investors, and instead focus on advancing workers’ rights and environmental protections.
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that → give → rights
Such forms of South-South cooperation can be vital to addressing the climate crisis.
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forms → address → crisis
How cooperation is done matters too.
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done → do → ?
Bandung inspired people across developing and developed countries alike – an internationalist solidarity needed today.
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Bandung → inspire → solidarity
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
