A great experiment?
Posted by AlexT - 28/09/09 at 05:09 pmIt is not generally realised the extent to which the Commonwealth differs fundamentally from all other international organisations. In the first place there is no treaty, nothing that legally defines the organisation, but that in itself is extraordinary.
A member country can leave any time it wants and at a moment’s notice.
Only in the 1990s did the Commonwealth find the need to make some rules for itself and still it made very few. Since then it has added one or two more only as and when they have been perceived as necessary. Far from being a weakness, it is this very looseness that provides the Commonwealth with an inner strength.
The Commonwealth as an international organisation is quite different in its history and development from any other. The only rough parallels are La Francophonie and Lusophone groupings. The Commonwealth has so far admitted to membership only one country the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique that had no links whatsoever with the British Empire.
But the comparable size of the Commonwealth sets it apart, containing such major powers as Australia, Canada, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa, as well as the UK.
The world’s increasingly numerous other international organisations are all, in one form or another, regional such as the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Organization of American States, and the African Union. The EU may be a powerful group, but it is confined to only one continent.
Thus the pragmatic development of the Commonwealth has to be seen for what it actually is: an evolving experiment in international co-operation that is historically only just beginning. These are uncharted waters, and it is understandable that people find it difficult to get their heads round the concept.
This extract is taken from an article written by Derek Ingram for the Commonwealth Yearbook 2009, published for the Commonwealth Secretariat by Nexus Strategic Partnerships.
Category : The Official Commonwealth
Tags: Commonwealth, Ingram, Official
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September 29th, 2009 at 8:52 am
isnt it this pragmatic looseness which also makes it weak. if people can withdraw at the drop of a hat, it makes dealing with difficult problems even harder. it would stop you being bold.
on the other hand its an interesting comparison to all these global treaties on climate change. hearding cats at the copanhagen summit this november.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:32 am
“uncharted waters” you make it seem like an adventure. i guess its an experiment from an international cooperation angle, but it was hardly an experiment in its formation. just a way of hanging on to the old empire.
October 4th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
It’s an irrelevance why it started, it’s what it does now that is important.
The experiment must go on. Too many International Organisations which require coercion and ‘hard power’ to hold together are deeply unequal and unjust, the UN included. The Commonwealth’s looseness may not be aesthetically speaking, but it’s internationalism’s saving grace.
November 24th, 2009 at 2:47 am
im from canada and i miss the empire