‘Soft power in the contemporary Commonwealth: Approaches, Opportunities and Challenges’.
One-day online conference/symposium hosted via Zoom by Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS), University of London.
The Commonwealth has been described as ‘the soft power network of the future’ (former UK Minister of State, Lord Howell, 2012). Beyond the UK, ministries and diplomats across the Commonwealth, including in India, South Africa, Australia, the Caribbean and Pacific island states, have also paid renewed attention to soft power, in combination with hard and smart power, and to the ability of multilateral diplomatic networks such as the Commonwealth to attract and sustain membership, or to relay their interests and concerns.
On Commonwealth Day 2013 (11 March), Queen Elizabeth II signed the Commonwealth Charter, the result of wide-ranging consultations across the governments, associations and people of the Commonwealth, after the Eminent Persons Group on Commonwealth reform first promoted the idea of a single, non-binding document outlining the Organisation’s fundamental principles and values. At the heart of the Commonwealth Charter is the hope that the Commonwealth, as a voluntary intergovernmental association and as a people’s network, can itself wield distinct soft power. And yet ten years on, evolution of the Commonwealth and tensions on the global stage – including the resurgence of geopolitics, military conflicts and the unwillingness of governments to abide by net-zero by 2050 – have raised questions about both the ability of the Commonwealth to live up to the values of its Charter, and the place of soft power in international politics.
To book follow the link here.
A provisional programme can be viewed here.
The ICWS is the only postgraduate academic institution in the United Kingdom devoted to the study of the Commonwealth and its member states. It is also home to the longest-running interdisciplinary and practice-orientated human rights programme in the UK. In addition to its established historical research, the ICWS focuses on current challenges confronting Commonwealth states and societies, providing evidence-based policy recommendations to contemporary problems.
