Commonwealth
Opinion
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...
How relevant is the Commonwealth today? The view from a journal
By James Chiriyankandath, Senior Research Fellow For over a decade I’ve co-edited Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, which is, along with The Round Table, one of the two journals, both published by Routledge, focused on the politics of the Commonwealth. First...
Is it too early to wish for a phoenix?
By Balasubramanyam Chandramohan, Senior Research Fellow The implication that the Commonwealth has to rise from its ashes presupposes that the Commonwealth is already in terminal decline, and may even be on the pyre of history. Yet the modern Commonwealth is clearly...
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