Ashok K. Behuria replies:  The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was conceived at a time when bipolarity was emerging as a marked feature in international politics. The world was divided between two polar ideologies, i.e., liberal democracy and communism. The United States (US) emerged as the leader of the so-called free world and the erstwhile Soviet Union as the leader of communist countries.

Udai Bhanu Singh replies: The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) formally began some 60 years ago with the first summit at Belgrade in 1961 but Vietnam joined it only in 1976. Vietnam, like the other developing countries of Asia and Africa, used NAM to raise its voice for safeguarding national sovereignty, protesting against imposition and intervention from outside and pushing for world peace, and improving the international environment for cooperation and development.

S. Kalyanaraman replies: From the Indian perspective, there are two principal differences between the United States-Soviet Union Cold War 1.0 and the prospective Cold War 2.0 between China and the United States The first difference lies in the fact that one of the protagonists in Cold War 2.0, namely, China, is an adversary that has been in occupation of Indian territory, continues to make claims to other Indian territories, has supported Pakistan against India since the 1960s

Reply: Refer to the IDSA comment, ‘The Spirit of Bandung’ by G. V. C. Naidu, at http://idsa.in/idsastrategiccomments/TheSpiritofBandung%20_GVNaidu_300505. Also, refer to an earlier reply by Satish Nambiar, at http://idsa.in/askanexpert/NAM