Although the New International Economic Order was officially proclaimed in 1974, its declaration at the United Nations was the culmination of a movement that began two decades earlier, with the Bandung conference of non-aligned countries in April 1955. The Non-Aligned Movement was initiated by African and Asian countries to address issues arising from decolonization, but by the second half of the 1950s Latin American states were seeking to join forces at the UN with these new nations for two reasons. First, the sheer increase in the number of UN members diluted the ability of Latin American countries to exercise power in the General Assembly through bloc voting. Second, governments in the region were seeking to enlist broad support among developing countries for the policies being promoted by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) and its director, Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1736