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The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and Policy Studies is published six times a year.
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Contributions on these themes, to the Editor are particularly welcome.Malaysia: The 15th general election and its implications
From the Archive
On 1 April Shirley Botchwey took office as the Commonwealth’s seventh secretary-general. In this article from 20 years ago, while taking into account the constraints on the role and the effects of external conditions on the nature and extent of it, Stephen Chan adopts an extended ornithological metaphor to assess the leadership styles and achievements of her first four predecessors: likening them, in turn, to a Weaver (Arnold Smith), a Bird of Paradise (Shridath Ramphal), a Hoopoe (Emeka Anyaoku), and a Kiwi (Don McKinnon). ['From the Archives' curated by Alex May and Paul Flather]
The 1973 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was held in Ottawa. In this assessment and follow-on its host, the long-serving Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, considered the role of the Commonwealth and its strengths. He placed particular value on the opportunity for heads to sit down together and share solutions and areas of agreement: ‘We should not underestimate the immense benefits which flow from talking frankly to one another, understanding better one another, eliminating areas of prejudice and irritation, helping one another’.
The role of the Secretary-General is unusually important in setting the tone and agenda for the official Commonwealth. The last time that the Commonwealth chose a new holder of the office was in 2015. In this article from that year, Australian diplomat Matthew Neuhaus set out a clear and comprehensive reform agenda in terms both of aims and of organisation, much of which is even more relevant today.