To mark the 75th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Nations, St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU) hosted the International Relations and the Commonwealth of Nations conference in late 2024.
The conference saw speakers, made up of scholars of the modern Commonwealth of Nations in both its intergovernmental and non-governmental guises, present papers from the perspective of International Relations, International Business, political science, post colonialism, and the legal and social sciences.
The aim of the conference was to amplify research from International Relations scholars relating to the Commonwealth.
Today, the modern Commonwealth of Nations has a combined population of 2.5 billion people. This equates to more than a third of the world's population and covers more than a quarter of the world’s land mass. The Commonwealth has grown in membership from seven member states in 1949 to 56 member states today.
Held in the Waldegrave Drawing Room on the St Mary’s University campus, topics discussed at the conference included:
- International Relations perspectives on the Commonwealth
- Diplomacy within the Commonwealth
- The impact of Commonwealth initiatives on member states
- The relationship of nations with the Commonwealth
- International business and firms within the Commonwealth
- Legacy of Empire
- The role of the Commonwealth within global context.
Core themes were addressed in a series of three panels: International Business and the Commonwealth, Diplomacy and International Relations of the Commonwealth, and Legacies of Empire.
Speaking on the conference, organiser and Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at SMU Dr Christopher Wylde said, “The first Commonwealth Annual Conference at St Mary’s was a significant success, and important milestone on our journey to foster a research agenda centred on the Commonwealth of Nations. A series of papers were presented from scholars emerging and established, representing universities across the Commonwealth and beyond.
“Great appetite was displayed for more scholarly work across the three theme areas, with an ambition to write up the contributions in a special issue of a Commonwealth journal. Not only was there lively debate, there were also great interactions between different communities within the Commonwealth family; practitioners connected with scholars and journal editors; former diplomats connected with students of diplomacy and our leaders of the future, including former St Mary’s Commonwealth Scholarship award holders; and politicians linked with policy advocates.”