Commonwealth
Opinion
Baroness Patricia Scotland: The Sixth Secretary General of the Commonwealth
By Dr Eva Namusoke, Postdoctoral Research Officer, Institute of Commonwealth Studies After months of campaigning in the quiet corners of diplomatic offices, online on social media and in speeches from Gaborone to Valletta, the Commonwealth heads of government voted on...
Thatcher’s top secret plan to destabilise the Ethiopian government
by Martin Plaut, Senior Research Fellow, ICWS Newly-released documents show that in 1985, the PM wrote to the Foreign Office seeking action on the Marxist and pro-Soviet regime in Ethiopia. Towards the end of 1985, at the height of the worst famine in modern Ethiopian...
Rhodesian UDI: 50 years on
by Dr Sue Onslow, Senior Lecturer in Commonwealth Studies There is a remarkable public amnesia in the UK that 50 years ago on 11th November, Southern Rhodesia defiantly declared its independence from Britain. In a highly theatrical performance, and under the gaze of a...
International migration and asylum – an opportunity for the Commonwealth to show leadership
by Richard Bourne, ICWS Senior Research Fellowship The meeting of Commonwealth Heads in Malta is likely to be dominated by three issues – the election of a Secretary-General to run the Secretariat from 2016, positions for the Commonwealth to take at the upcoming...
A historic trial and justice denied
by Henning Melber, ICWS Senior Research Fellow The principle in dubio pro reo (“in doubt for the accused”) is that one is innocent until proven guilty are fundamental principles of justice. But another motto suggests that justice delayed is justice denied. The...
Sri Lanka’s Embattled Media
by William Crawley and David Page, ICWS Senior Research Fellows The articles in our edited volume Embattled Media were written before the Presidential election in Sri Lanka in which President Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated and removed from office. For some of our...
Reparations, liberation, and the legacies of colonialism
by Adam Elliott-Cooper The BBC documentary, ‘Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners: Profit and Loss’, broadcast in July 2015, shed light on the vast resources appropriated by Britain through the enslavement of African peoples in the Anglophone Caribbean. In addition to the...
Cosmetic trade bans and Western paternalism will not end poaching in Africa – community-based conservation will
by Keith Somerville, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies* One of the major announcements by President Obama during his brief but highly symbolic visit to Kenya this weekend was that he would implement “urgently needed steps” to restrict the sale...
No longer at ease – clouds on the horizon for Botswana’s conservation success story
by Keith Somerville, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies* Without belabouring the Chinua Achebe motif, Botswana's conservation community is less at ease than it is used to being but the country is still far from seeing things fall apart. Botswana...
Renewing the Commonwealth – A reform agenda for a new Secretary-General
by Matthew Neuhaus* The Commonwealth in Crisis In Malta, in November this year at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Commonwealth leaders will elect a new Secretary-General. He - or perhaps at last she - will be the sixth Secretary-General, or SG,...
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