The Commonwealth Conversation

James Mayall: What is the Modern Commonwealth?

This conversation starter is provided by James Mayall, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge. He recently edited a collection of essays entitled The Contemporary Commonwealth: An Assessment 1965-2009, marking the centenary of The Round Table Journal of International Affairs.

I think of the modern Commonwealth as a happy accident. If it did not exist it would neither be necessary nor perhaps possible to invent it. Not all member-states value Commonwealth membership for the same reasons or to the same extent. But neither of these truisms are a problem.

Following the transition from empire and the end of apartheid, the association is searching for a meaning. The ‘democratic world order’ thought possible with the advent of The End of History, the Washington Consensus and articulated in the Commonwealth via the Harare Principles – has not yet materialised.

At CHOGMs the Heads of Government review the world situation at length. Their views on world affairs feature prominently in the Communiqués, which invariably record the Commonwealth’s solidarity with Cyprus in its dispute with Turkey and with Belize in rejecting Venezuelan territorial claims, but by convention remain silent about the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.

CMAG – the body set up to deal with serious or persistent violations of the Commonwealth’s fundamental values – may be frustrating, but it takes the Commonwealth a step further than other international organisations. Similarly the Secretary General’s “good offices” are certainly commendable. However, the association has its well recorded limitations. Indeed, non-interference in the internal affairs of its members, even if they flaunt the association’s fundamental values, is very much the hallmark of post-colonial Commonwealth relations.

This leaves us to find the value of the Commonwealth in its ‘framework for informal cooperation between members’ and through ‘the mutual exercise of soft power’. From this point of view, the recent election of a distinguished Indian diplomat to the post of Secretary-General is evidence of the Commonwealth’s profile in the emerging world order.

At a time when India seems set to play a prominent international role, it is not only significant but encouraging that the Indian Government should have regarded the Commonwealth as an appropriate association within which to project its growing influence. This happy accident of history may now have found a new role.

Category : Historical Legacy, The Commonwealth's Relevance, The Official Commonwealth
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