A New Review of Heine’s ‘The Non-Aligned World’ (2025)
A book review by Aprajita Kashyap of The Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, analyzes The Non-Aligned World: Striking Out in an Era of Great Power Competition (2025), the most recent book by Ambassador Jorge Heine, former Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies. The book offers a timely exploration of how countries in the Global South are redefining strategic autonomy amid intensifying U.S.–China competition. Building on their earlier work, Heine and his co-authors Carlos Fortin, and Carlos Ominami frame “Active Non-Alignment” (ANA) as a modern, pragmatic doctrine that differs from the more passive Non-Aligned Movement of the Cold War. As the review notes, ANA is less a movement than “a kind of intermediate approach: the strategy of hedging,” allowing states to “play one power against another in order to maximise their national gains.” This posture is especially evident in Global South responses to the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza, where countries have avoided siding decisively with any major power bloc.
The book situates this strategic shift within the growing economic, technological, and political capabilities of the Global South, underscored by new institutions such as BRICS and the New Development Bank, as well as the influe nce of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. According to the review, the Global South has “shed the passivity which was associate d with the Non-Aligned world in the past,” replacing narratives of victimhood with a more confident, multipolar outlook. At the same time, the authors argue that the Liberal International Order has eroded, accelerated by Western double standards, the retreat from globalization, and the increasing “weaponisation of tariffs” and sanctions. In this transitional moment, what the reviewer describes as “Gramsci’s classical interregnum”, ANA offers both a framework for understanding and a practical guide for action.
Yet the review also highlights ANA’s limitations. The Global South is far from monolithic, and national histories and interests often diverge sharply. India’s objections to aspects of the Belt and Road Initiative and its concerns about expanded BRICS membership illustrate these internal tensions. Moreover, ANA presumes a stable form of great‑power competition, a condition the reviewer cautions may not hold if U.S.–China rivalry escalates or if the two major powers converge into a G‑2 arrangement. Still, the authors insist that “the very structure of the international system” makes ANA the most viable strategy for the present. For India and other states practicing forms of multi‑alignment, ANA provides a compelling conceptual lens for navigating an uncertain and evolving geopolitical landscape.
A former research professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Jorge Heine is a diplomat, international relations scholar, and lawyer. He is currently a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute. He has served as an ambassador of Chile to China, India, and South Africa. Heine has written over fifteen books, including The Non-Aligned World: Striking Out in an Era of Great Power Competition (2025), which provides insights on how the Global South can navigate the changing diplomatic landscape amid the U.S.-China rivalry.