A message from the Chair
Officially the centenary of The Round Table journal (started in the Edwardian era) does not start until 2010. But our preparations, as you can see from our website, are running on apace.
And I thought it would be good to provide a monthly update for readers and supporters of our journal, starting in July 2009 after my re-election for a final year as Chair of the editorial advisory board, (known since the early twentieth century as the Moot).
Richard Bourne
View the messages by selecting any of the links below:
November 2009
How successful is the Commonwealth as a champion of small states - some 32 out of the total membership of 53? And does its activity for the smaller members damage or enhance the interest shown in it by its medium sized and stronger countries?
The first question loomed large at an excellent Cambridge workshop on small states in the international political economy, organised by Dr Amrita Narlikar as the first of the series of centenary events for the Round Table. The second, which hovered on the edge of discussion, is an important element in "The Contemporary Commonwealth", essays assessing the evolution of the Commonwealth from 1965 to 2009, edited by Professor James Mayall and published this month by Routledge.
It is impossible to mention all the points raised in Cambridge on 13 November. But Cyrus Rustomjee from the Commonwealth Secretariat argued that small states have been particularly hard hit by the current global recession; Brendan Vickers, who formerly worked in Thabo Mbeki's presidential office, explained how the EU, in negotiating economic partnership agreements with the SADC group of countries, had caused that group to fragment; Godfrey Baldacchino talked about the "perforated sovereignties" of small states, which is why the Federated States of Micronesia - which has outsourced its foreign policy to the United States - is often one of a handful of states in the UN which lines up with the US and Israel; and Ian Ralby talked about the way in which private security firms have come to dominate the scene in Sierra Leone.
James Mayall's volume, the first of the two which are coming out from Routledge for the Round Table centenary, provides a density of information and analysis which are already creating interest amongst Commonwealth practitioners as well as academics. After a period in which there were few books about the Commonwealth there are now several - Mayall's comes after other recent accounts by Krishan Srinivasan, David McIntyre and Tim Shaw. The excuse in universities for ignoring the Commonwealth, that there was no literature available, no longer applies.
Whether the new literature, taken together, is sufficiently critical is another question. Does the Commonwealth actually do all that its propaganda claims? Can membership provide significant advantages, especially for larger states, in the bloated world of international diplomacy? Is it now truly a multilateral body or, to put it another way, how often in the last 20 years has the Commonwealth pursued a policy which diverges from that of its key funder, the United Kingdom?
The centenary of The Round Table, the only journal which focuses on the contemporary Commonwealth, will facilitate a continuing discussion of such issues.
Richard Bourne