Corrected 26 September 2026: the conference took place in 1955, not 1954. Bandung and the first Non-Aligned summit were separate events.
A meeting outside the usual Cold War frame
In April 1955, representatives of 29 Asian and African governments met in Bandung, Indonesia. Their agenda included decolonisation, economic cooperation, peace and sovereignty. The meeting brought the priorities of these governments into an international debate often narrated principally through Washington and Moscow. Office of the Historian: Bandung.
Participants did not share one political programme. Some had close relationships with Western powers; others took different positions. Agreement on opposition to colonialism did not erase those differences. Treating everyone at Bandung as already belonging to a single non-aligned bloc misrepresents the gathering.
Bandung was not Belgrade
Bandung helped establish ideas and relationships associated with non-alignment. The first summit of the Non-Aligned Movement took place in Belgrade in 1961. A United Nations account of the movement's origins distinguishes these two milestones.
That distinction changes the question we ask. Instead of assuming a finished organisation appeared at Bandung, consider how shared statements might become sustained cooperation. A declaration can express an ambition without proving that every participant subsequently followed it.
A careful alternate-history question
Hypothesis, not a historical conclusion: what if the delegates had failed to agree on a final statement? Possible outcomes include weaker cooperation or another meeting attempting the same work. It would be unjustified to assume that all participants would consequently have joined one superpower's camp.
To develop the scenario, list what your proposed change affects directly, then identify the extra assumptions needed for any wider outcome. Which governments would change policy, and why? What interests would remain unchanged?
Compare this exercise with the distinction between evidence and assumptions in our Black Death counterfactual guide.
Reading the sources
The Office of the Historian provides an institutional US perspective; the UN text is a later commemorative address. Neither is a neutral transcript of every delegate's intentions. Use their dates and descriptions carefully, and distinguish contemporary decisions from later accounts of their significance.