There are several ways in which being nonaligned would have offered an advantage and disadvantage to a developing nation during the Cold War, but in general they would have been able to trade with both sides.
The agreement was the unanticipated fruit of an attempt by the French Foreign Minister, Aristide Briand, to negotiate a bilateral treaty with the United States in which each nation would renounce the use of war as an instrument of policy toward the other.
One reason why peasants might have been interested in fighting in The Crusades is because this would have enriched the crusading country--which would have led to an increase in their standard of living (to a certain extent).
