Where Next for the Group of 54?

Five essays on the future of the Commonwealth of Nations at the start of the 21st century

• Introduction

• The Commonwealth in the 21st century: an overview - Richard Bourne, Head, Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit

• The Commonwealth in Africa: moving forward together? - Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Director of Research, South African Institute of International Affairs

• How the Commonwealth looks from the South Pacific -Margaret Reynolds, Adjunct Professor, School of Political and International Studies, Queensland University

• Sustaining democracy in Commonwealth South Asia: the fallacy of the military option - Professor Rehman Sobhan, Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka

• The future of the small economies of the Commonwealth in a changing global environment - Professor Andrew S Downes, Director, Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Babrados

Which way should the Group of 54, the Commonwealth of Nations, go in the first decade of the 21st century? All institutions need to reinvent themselves at intervals, but the existential question has been more regularly applied in this case than in many others. It gets asked because real knowledge about the Commonwealth is thinly spread, its activities bulk small, and journalists every two years have to write something to explain the sudden departure of their presidents and prime ministers to a meeting whose purposes and status are not self-explanatory.

The Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit ( CPSU ) at London University's Institute of Commonwealth Studies takes a different view. For us the Commonwealth is and will be important, not only for its political activity, but for that great range of networks which span 54 very different countries. They are of course complex, heterogeneous, and certainly not beyond criticism. However, compared with the Non-Aligned Movement and the Francophonie -- the two other main transregional associations below the global level of the United Nations -- the Commonwealth is extraordinarily rich in achievement and assets, both for its members and for the world at large.

At present ten political leaders, chaired by President Mbeki of South Africa, are conducting their own review of Commonwealth priorities. The theme for the summit in Brisbane in October, 2001 is "Continuity and Renewal." In that context the CPSU has invited persons from different countries to give their own assessment of issues that the Commonwealth needs to take seriously over the next decade.

They are: Professor Andrew Downes, Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, who is focusing on the problems facing small states; Adjunct Professor Margaret Reynolds, of the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Queensland, who writes about the perspective from a South Pacific which seems rather remote from the Commonwealth headquarters in London; Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Director of Research at the South African Institute of International Affairs, Braamfontein, who examines the Commonwealth from an African perspective; and Professor Rehman Sobhan, Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, who focuses on the continuing problems of democracy in South Asia. I myself have attempted an overview.

We offer this selection of essays as a contribution to debate, and to ensuing activity.

Richard Bourne

June, 2001