Commonwealth
Opinion
The Black Must Be Discharged!
By Sir Ronald Sanders Racism was the bedrock of European colonialism in the Caribbean. The subjugation, oppression and exploitation of African people as ‘sub-human’ was justified by colonial powers based on race and colour. A crucial fixture of the architecture of...
Zimbabwe, the Commonwealth and elections
by Sue Onslow, ICWS Deputy Director Zimbabwe has long been particularly important to the moral purpose of the Commonwealth. Indeed, in the 1970s, Commonwealth support enabled Joshua Nkomo to meet world leaders in closed session at the Commonwealth heads of government...
Pakistan’s private media, the military and the 2018 upcoming elections
by Kiran Hassan, Associate Fellow Pakistan is holding its third consecutive election on 25th July 2018. Many observers looking at the relationship between elections and media allege that the military maintains considerable sway and uses its weight to ensure who comes...
Ruth First and Joe Slovo: South African Communists and the Eritrean War of Liberation
by Martin Plaut, Senior Research Fellow Ruth First (4 May 1925 – 17 August 1982) is today recognised as one of South Africa’s revolutionary heroes. She was a radical journalist, educator and member of the Communist Party. Her papers are held by the Institute of...
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...
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