Paper short abstract:

The paper follows the rise, decline and recent rebuilding of one of the few formal development institutions of the Non-Aligned Movement, the International Center for Public Enterprises in Developing Countries (Slovenia), as a non-traditional alternative to international development cooperation.

Paper long abstract:

In 1992, Akhil Gupta analysed transnational identities starting off with the "song of the Non-Aligned world". Today, the melody may have remained the same, but the beat to this alternative international cooperation has most definitely changed. Based on ethnographic research (2010 -), the paper follows the rise, decline and rebuilding of one of the few formal development institutions of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the International Center for Public Enterprises in Developing Countries (ICPE), headquartered in Slovenia.

NAM was launched in 1961 in Belgrade as an alternative to the existing networks of the superpowers. ICPE was established in 1974 in the Yugoslav city of Ljubljana, working towards the New International Economic Order. Pejoratively known in Slovenia as "Zumba House" ever since its first "golden decade", ICPE serves as a small window offering a view on the wider issues of international cooperation within the NAM. After 1991, when the newly independent Slovenia turned its gaze towards the West, ICPE became an obscure remnant of the past and was renamed to International Center for Promotion of Enterprises in 1997 to better reflect the changed economic conditions. Only recently, ICPE again received the attention of the Slovenian public as an unnecessary expense of the impoverished state in economic crisis, while the State at the same time rediscovers the Center's potentials for reconnecting with "old friends" from the NAM (e.g. India).

The paper examines the contested meanings of ICPE and the perceived opportunities for Slovenian foreign affairs and development cooperation beyond the established "western" networks.