The Cold War Era and the Non-Aligned Movement
What the domain tests
This domain tests the Cold War as a system of rivalry, not a single event, and the Non-Aligned Movement as a foreign-policy choice. Expect questions on origins, alliances, crises, NAM principles and India's role.
Core rules and concepts
- Cold War means ideological, political, military and economic rivalry between the US-led capitalist bloc and the Soviet-led socialist bloc after 1945, short of direct war.
- Key institutions: NATO (1949), Warsaw Pact (1955); US containment and Marshall Plan; Soviet COMECON.
- Flashpoints: Berlin blockade (1948-49), Korean War (1950-53), Cuban missile crisis (1962), Vietnam, Afghanistan (1979).
- Nuclear deterrence rested on mutual assured destruction; the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968) divided nuclear haves and have-nots.
- NAM was founded at Belgrade (1961) by Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno and Nkrumah; Bandung (1955) was a precursor.
- NAM principles: anti-colonialism, peaceful coexistence, Panchsheel, opposition to military blocs and support for the UN.
- Non-alignment meant independent judgement, not neutrality or isolation; India accepted aid from both sides while refusing alliance membership.
Worked example
Why did India stay non-aligned although it received US food aid and faced China's 1962 attack? Reasoning: aid does not create alliance; India judged each issue strategically; NAM preserved autonomy and anti-colonial credibility; India still signed the 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty for security, showing non-alignment was flexible.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling NAM anti-Western or neutral; it was neither.
- Confusing Bandung with the first NAM summit.
- Treating the Cold War as only military; it was also economic and cultural.
- Forgetting that the Cuban crisis was about Soviet missiles in Cuba, not a direct US-Soviet war.