We need to talk about Bandung

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.The developing world’s momentous meeting in 1955 laid the groundwork for a new international order and South-South cooperation. It asked a question that everyone, even rich nations, is asking today: who gets to write the rules of the global economy?That moment needs retelling. 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. 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.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. As the “Third World” alliance grew, practical efforts to support decolonisation emerged o...