This book takes a new look at the Commonwealth from the founding of the Secretariat in 1965 to the 14th Commonwealth Games in 1990. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 looks at origins, the Heads of Government Meetings, the Secretariat and the Commonwealth in a global setting. Part 2 covers race, Africa, inequalities and the security of small states. The final part, on Functioning, looks at regionalism, functional organisations, professional linkages, peoples, sport and the role of the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth. It concludes with an 'Agenda for the 1990s'.
Britain's loss of its empire and its 'turn' to Europe are the two most striking features of its foreign policy in the thirty years after 1945. The contributors to this book examine the connection between the two processes. Utilizing a range of sources, the authors challenge conventional interpretations of the connection, and in doing so raise important questions about the nature, motivation, and effects of British policy.
The modern British Commonwealth, linking fifty countries around the world in voluntary association, cooperation, and consultation, is a unique body in world history. The area of its member countries covers a third of the globe and collectively their peoples represent a quarter of the world's total population. Though essentially different from the British Empire from which it originated, the Commonwealth shares many common historical ties with Britain. Patricia M. Larby and Harry Hannam have assembled an unrivaled body of literature to illustrate the growth of the Empire into the Commonwealth. This extensive bibliography identifies, lists, and annotates the most important publications on the development and growth of the Commonwealth; its present status and functions; and its role in education, literature, sport, and the arts and sciences. It includes its historical origins: its cooperation in economics, politics, and international issues such as the environment; and its many spheres of professional activity including medicine, law, and architecture. Strong emphasis is placed on the role of the English language in the Commonwealth and as a medium for creative literature in many disparate cultures worldwide. "The Commonwealth "appears at a time when this unique organization is on the threshold of a new era in its history. The proposals emerging from the 1991 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting include statements on democracy and human rights; environmental affairs; and global concerns such as international crime, drug abuse, and AIDS. No previous comprehensive bibliography of the Commonwealth exists, and this volume fills a long-standing gap in the bibliographical coverage. It will be an essential reference source for libraries and scholars involved in Commonwealth studies and will be of particular interest to historians, political scientists, economists, and educators.
This lucid guide meets the need, so often expressed in the 1990s, for an up-to-date assessment of the contemporary Commonwealth. It has a succinct section on its historical background and gives more attention than any previous works to symbols and to the 'People's Commonwealth' of voluntary organizations, sports and business. It highlights critical questions of balance that have emerged between the relative roles of governments and official agencies, voluntary associations, and private business.
This book illuminates two familiar phenomena – diplomacy and the Commonwealth – from a new and unfamiliar angle: the atypical way in which the Commonwealth’s members came to, and continue to, engage in official relations with each other. This innovative and wide-ranging study is based on archival material from four states, interviews and correspondence with diplomats, and a wide range of secondary sources. It shows how members of an empire found it necessary to engage in diplomacy and, in so doing, created a singular, and often remarkably intimate, diplomatic system. The result is a fascinating, multidisciplinary exploration of the evolving Commonwealth and the way in which its 53 members and Ireland conduct diplomacy with one another, and in so doing have contributed a distinctive terminology to the diplomatic lexicon.
te Velde examines Commonwealth identity through the lens of its membership criteria, its recent enlargement and its constant reincarnation. Far from being an old relic of the past, the Commonwealth is a growing, vibrant modern international organisation and despite its traditional image, Commonwealth membership is shown to be a rather fluid concept that evolves with the times. This book identifies and discusses the different theoretical approaches to analysing the Commonwealth. In so doing it exposes various shortcomings in current thinking about international relations and the Commonwealth. Furthermore, it reveals how a number of turning points in the Commonwealth's history have shaped its membership rules and illustrates how the official Commonwealth still has the potential to expand and develop to best reflect an organisation that represents a third of the world's population. In terms of further growth of the organisation, this book examines the cases of a number of eligible states to assess their likelihood of achieving membership. It also incorporates a handful of non-eligible states that, notwithstanding the new 'rules', are still bent on joining.
te Velde examines Commonwealth identity through the lens of its membership criteria, its recent enlargement and its constant reincarnation. Far from being an old relic of the past, the Commonwealth is a growing, vibrant modern international organisation and despite its traditional image, Commonwealth membership is shown to be a rather fluid concept that evolves with the times. This book identifies and discusses the different theoretical approaches to analysing the Commonwealth. In so doing it exposes various shortcomings in current thinking about international relations and the Commonwealth. Furthermore, it reveals how a number of turning points in the Commonwealth's history have shaped its membership rules and illustrates how the official Commonwealth still has the potential to expand and develop to best reflect an organisation that represents a third of the world's population. In terms of further growth of the organisation, this book examines the cases of a number of eligible states to assess their likelihood of achieving membership. It also incorporates a handful of non-eligible states that, notwithstanding the new 'rules', are still bent on joining.
This work is a path-breaking study of the changing attitudes of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to Britain and the Commonwealth in the 1940s and the effect of those changes on their individual and collective standing in international affairs. The focus is imperial preference, the largest discriminatory tariff system in the world and a potent symbol of Commonwealth unity. It is based on archival research in Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
This collection of essays has been assembled to mark the centenary of The Round Table. It provides an analysis of the modern Commonwealth since the establishment of the Secretariat in 1965. Providing an overview of the contemporary Commonwealth, this book places the organization in its rich historical context while assessing its achievements, failures and prospects. The volume is divided into two parts: • Part I concentrates on a series of themes, dealing with the structure and functioning of the Commonwealth and its major activities, including the work of the secretary general and secretariat, its championing of the interests of small states, human rights and the world economy. • Part II adopts a regional perspective, identifying the impact of the Commonwealth on regional relations generally and particular problems that affect these relations. It also examines the ways in which the Commonwealth sometimes reinforces regional loyalties and interests but also the extent to which these have also reduced the importance of the Commonwealth in the foreign policy of its member states. The Contemporary Commonwealth will be of interest to students and scholars of international politics and international organisations, practitioners ,journalists and those working in NGOs involved in Commonwealth affairs. This collection of essays is intended as a companion volume to The Commonwealth and International Affairs, edited by Alex May, marking the centenary of The Round Table.
