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The concepts of ‘neutrality’, ‘non-alignment’, ‘Southern solidarity’ and ‘South-Southco-operation’ have all been used with reference to the international actions of thethird world as a collectivity. It is worthwhile to separate these concepts from theconcept of ‘internationalism’ as used in the thesis. To begin with, ‘neutrality’ wasnever a feature of the positions adopted by developing countries in collectiveforums such as the Asian-African Conference of 1955, or the Non-AlignedMovement. Non-alignment referred primarily to the right reserved by the newlyindependentstates not to declare their support in advance for either the East or Westblocs on international matters. 119 Non-aligned states remained vigorously chargedwith international questions, however, and did not simply seek to avoid affiliationwith the East or West. Neutrality, meanwhile, is the “legal status that arises from theabstention of a state from any participation in a war between other states”. 120‘Southern’ or ‘Third World’ solidarity is an amorphous concept related to thesupport (mainly political and economic) offered to countries lacking in industrialdevelopment, with a shared colonial experience and a perspective of marginalisationin international affairs, by countries sharing these qualities. Finally, ‘South-Southcooperation’ took form from the end of the 1960s onward, and was inspired bydependencia perspectives advanced by South American scholars. It was evident in thedesire of developing countries, recognising a subservient role in relation to theadvanced industrialised economies, to de-link from these economies and forgestronger economic ties among themselves, which they assumed would be lessexploitative and more relevant to their development. South-South co-operation hastaken the form of capital flows and trade contacts, though these have never comeclose to matching the established contacts with traditional Northern economicpartners.Third World internationalism, not unlike the internationalism identified with largedeveloping states earlier, is a distinct foreign policy posture that assumes thedeveloping world as its focal point, and emphasises the issues of internationaleconomic justice and development; questions of equitable international political119 Karefa-Smart, “Africa and the United Nations”, 765120 P.A. Murthy and B.K. Shrivastava, Neutrality and non-alignment in the 1990s,(London: Sangam Books: 1991): xv..68