The Commonwealth in contemporary international relations

ABSTRACT

The Commonwealth functions in contemporary international relations as a ‘mini’ version of multilateralism, encompassing issues of geopolitics, the global economy, climate change, and human rights and democracy. While essentially an organisation of developing countries, it also includes the United Kingdom and the ‘old Dominions’. There is a particular focus on the role of small states, even though the Commonwealth also includes some very large developing countries. Apart from its global role, the Commonwealth can be significant in regional contexts where there is some concentration of Commonwealth members. The Commonwealth also has a role as a context for civil society organisations. The article provides an assessment of the role of the Commonwealth within these various settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Commonwealth
• international relations
• multilateralism
• small states

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In terms of the contemporary Commonwealth, South Africa is most accurately described as one of the emerging powers; as the Union of South Africa it was one of the ‘old Dominions’ before 1961.

2 One should also note that both Mozambique and Rwanda, neither of which was ever under the rule of Britain or one of the ‘old Dominions’, have become members of the Commonwealth. There is also the case of Cameroon, also a Commonwealth member; most of Cameroon was previously administered by France as a United Nations trust territory, with the remainder having been the southern region of the British-administered trust territory of Cameroons (the northern region opted to join Nigeria).

3 In the twelve volumes of the Australia in World Affairs series sponsored by the Australian Institute of International Affairs (the first volume covering 1950–55, and the most recent covering 2011–15), Schreuder (1992) is the only contribution focusing specifically on the Commonwealth. See also the special issue of Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, no. 387 (October 2006) on ‘Australia and the Commonwealth World’.

4 The figures for the United Nations are from Ó Súilleabháin (2014), p. 3. The Forum on Small States (FOSS) using a population of 10 million as the cutoff, has 105 members (but with some small states by this definition not being members). As a subcategory of small states, microstates (populations less than 500,000) at the UN number 28 (15 between 100,000 and 500,000; 13 with fewer than 100,000). Applying the FOSS cutoff of 10 million people to the Commonwealth, 34 of the 53 members have populations less than this figure; a total of 19 Commonwealth members have populations less than 500,000 (13 between 100,000 and 500,000, and six below 100,000).

5 Although a Caribbean country, Cuba’s influence manifests itself more broadly in a Latin American context.

6 See Wallis (2017).

7 See Mickler and Lyons (2013).

8 As of 2017 British exports to the top ten Commonwealth destinations accounted for 8 percent of British exports, compared with 44 percent going to EU countries. See Full Fact (2017).