Here is an outline of your most read and most shared articles of 2024 on the Round Table website and via our Twitter/ X platform.
Thank you for your interest over the year and we look forward to sharing some of the exciting new ventures coming up in 2025. There is a taster below with a look at the incoming Round Table Journal Editor and her editorial team.
Most read on the Round Table website:
South Africa
Even though written in 2023, this article on South Africa’s challenges continued to be popular with Round Table readers in 2024. The article opens with:
South Africa is on the cusp of major change. It could be about to elect a government without an absolute majority, which will have to look for coalition partners to run the country.
New Commonwealth secretary-general
In the countdown to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Chatham House held a panel session to meet the candidates for position of the secretary-general of the Commonwealth. Round Table reported on the session which was well-attended in public and online. It proved to be popular with our readers too.
The article noted:
Round Table Website Editor Debbie Ransome writes: For the 1,600+ people online, this was our first chance to hear from the three candidates vying for the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General. The 11 September event was a debate, entitled The Future of the Commonwealth, co-hosted by Chatham House, the Commonwealth Foundation and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).
Round Table Board emeritus member, Richard Bourne, attended the session and writes:
Sitting behind High Commission staff, and surrounded by a Chatham House audience that included many expert followers of the Commonwealth and others curious to find out what this mysterious, many tentacled creature is all about, one was struck by two realisations. First, that it was amazing to be witnessing, for the first time, a debate between candidates to be Secretary-General of the Commonwealth in advance of the election. Second, that this audience was a minority among the witnesses, for over 1600 people were online, watching Mamadou Tangara of The Gambia, Joshua Setipa of Lesotho, and Shirley Botchwey of Ghana state their claims to succeed Patricia Scotland, to debate, and answer questions.
New Round Table Journal editor
Also in the countdown to CHOGM, there was a growing interest in the work of the Round Table Journal and the appointment of a new journal editor.
Introducing the new Round Table editorial team from January 2025:
- Deputy Editor – Syed Badrul Ahsan.
Regional Editors:
- Dr Dianna DaSilva-Glasgow
- Dr Henrietta McNeill
- Professor Remi Aiyede
- Terry Barringer will continue as the Round Table Journal Book Review Editor.
Most re-posted articles on social media
Thank you for your continuing interest in the Routledge/Round Table Commonwealth Studentship Awards over 2024.
Our followers on Twitter/ X also shared our obituaries and tributes to the late former Commonwealth secretary-general Sir Shridath Ramphal (1928-2024).
There was also a following for the daily reporting from CHOGM 2024 in Samoa. Our most-shared post pulled together the daily CHOGM journals from Australian professor and diplomat Matthew Neuhaus and CHOGM diaries and wrap-up from Commonwealth veteran Derek McDougall at bit.ly/3Cf9u68 and https://ow.ly/gc0A50TVb8n
You also reposted our obituary for Round Table stalwart Stephen Cox (1946-2024) in February.
Many thanks for your support and interest in 2024.
Debbie Ransome is the website editor for the Round Table.
