Commonwealth
Opinion
Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth
By Dr Sue Onslow, Senior Lecturer in Commonwealth Studies and Deputy Director Rejoining the Commonwealth has been a key element of the mood music of Zimbabwe’s foreign policy of ‘robust reengagement’ with the international community under President Emmerson Mnangagwa....
Understanding the Commonwealth through the Library collections
by Laurence Byrne, Research Librarian for Commonwealth Studies As Krishnan Srinivasan has noted, the Commonwealth is perhaps the only international organisation shaped by the British experience and by the experience that other nations have had of the British. No...
The Commonwealth: a strange beast, a relic of Empire…or not so bad after all?
by Martin Plaut, Senior Research Fellow On the face of it, the Commonwealth is a strange beast. A hotchpotch of 53 nations, covering a quarter of the world’s land-mass, its leaders represent (after a fashion) a third of world’s population. Born out of the Empire, it...
The Commonwealth: adapting to post-war, post-imperial realities
by Susan Williams, Senior Research Fellow How one addresses the question of the Commonwealth's relevance depends on one’s perception of ‘the Commonwealth’. It is known globally as an international association, bringing together 53 ‘independent and equal sovereign...
The future of the Commonwealth’s relevance lies in development
by Nicholas S.J. Watts, Senior Research Fellow The relevance of the Commonwealth can only be established in a political context. When the Second World War ended, for example, and the British Empire increasingly looked set to fade, Nehru became the statesman who would...
Cameroon: a political challenge for the Commonwealth
by Melanie Torrent, Senior Research Fellow Back in October 1995, the admission of Cameroon to the Commonwealth during the Heads of Government Meeting in Auckland was a fairly controversial affair. Within Commonwealth circles, a number of experts believed the country...
What does the Commonwealth mean to me? Tracing the institution’s global and personal impact
by Keith Somerville, Senior Research Fellow My first memory of being aware of something called the Commonwealth was as a six or seven year old at West Acton Infant’s School in West London. On the second Monday in March, if the weather was good, the whole school would...
The Commonwealth takes on a complex role in a decolonised world
by Rehnuma Sazzad, Associate Fellow To be, or not to be, is not the question we generally associate with the Commonwealth. Given the historico-political ties binding the former colonies with the mother country, the relevance of the organization has never been...
Commonwealth perspectives: Ideals, memories and sentiments
by J Howard M Jones, Senior Research Fellow When first teaching at the University of Reading, a student from Fiji recounted to me the experience of attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace. When introduced, with her husband, to the Queen, they knelt and clapped...
The relevance of the Commonwealth: beyond commerce
by John Cowley, Senior Research Fellow Political change in the United Kingdom has raised interest in the Commonwealth, giving the organisation a status it has lacked in recent years. Suddenly, this extraordinary association of diverse communities that spans the globe...
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