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A second Commonwealth could make Britain great again
[January 23, 2006]

A second Commonwealth could make Britain great again


(Yorkshire Post Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)David Howell Lord Howell of Guildford is the Shadow Deputy Leader of the Lords. A former Minister in the governments of Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher, from 1987-97 he was chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.



BRITAIN urgently needs a re-orientation of its foreign policy to meet 21st-century world conditions.

The present, predominantly Eurocentric approach ("we must work through our European partners" is the guiding mantra) is not serving us well.


Our interests are not being protected and promoted as they should be, our contribution to global peace, stability and development is not nearly as effective as it could be and our own idea of ourselves and our purpose in today's world is blurred and diluted.

People like to say that the choice for Britain is between Europe and America, that when it comes to global affairs we are condemned to choosing between being plugged fully into the European Union bloc, ineffective and divided as it is on major issues, and being the lapdog of the United States .

But the antithesis is a false one. We certainly need partners in this highly interdependent world. The days of go-it-alone are long past - for the Americans, as they have gradually come to realise, as well as for ourselves. Talk of "a sovereign independent foreign policy" sounds fine on the election platform but is actually quite meaningless.

But our partners must be the right ones. With the centre of world power shifting to Asia, and with the need to repair the battered trans-Atlantic relationship, it is crystal clear that the EU, while a valuable regional association, is not up to the job internationally.

On the contrary, it seems to amplify, rather than calm, trans-Atlantic disputes. The Atlantic is growing wider and that is not at all in Britain's, or the world's, interests.

So where should we look for like-minded friends and allies and for a grouping which can maintain a friendly but firm dialogue with the Americans - basically supportive but not afraid to be candidly critical or even restraining - and be listened to in Washington with respect? One answer is on our doorstep. Britain is a key member of a ready-made network of enormous reach across continents, embracing many faiths and bound by common ties of amazing intimacy, both governmental and non-governmental - cultural, legal, sporting, linguistic, scientific. This network is the Commonwealth.

This may understandably raise eyebrows because the track record of the Commonwealth as a force for peace, development and stability has not been all that good.

Is it not just really a history-based talking shop? Has it not fumbled vital issues like the Zimbabwe tragedy? And anyway, with all those impoverished African states as members, where's the economic or political beef in such an organisation? But that could be yesterday's snapshot. The image of the Commonwealth has not yet caught up with some startling new facts.

Today the Commonwealth contains six of the most dynamic economies in the world - India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Canada - seven if we include the UK itself, although our own country is now slipping.

Forget the old ideas of primary producers selling to the richer West, or Western investment in the impoverished East or South. Today the growing capital flows are changing as Indian, Chinese and other Asiatic enterprises nose their way into Europe.

The hi-tech wave is coming from the East, and from India in particular, which is scheduled by 2025 to have a national product larger than the whole of Western Europe - the jewel indeed in the Commonwealth network of the future.

But despite all this, some doubts remain valid. Can the Commonwealth really cohere on vital issues? Can it deliver real weight and power, argue the corner of the smaller and poorer countries in a way that the EU most notably does not do, and present one front on the really key issues of democracy, rule of law, human rights, world policing and a general commitment to free societies and free enterprise? The answer is that the modern Commonwealth certainly has the right underlying common values, but if it is to be an effective platform the framework needs to be strengthened and enlarged.

In effect, the Commonwealth should develop its own foreign policy. It should stretch out and work with other like-minded democracies who, along with many existing members, want to be pro-American but not subservient, and have their own perspective on key world issues, not an American-imposed one.

Japan is one obvious example. But so, too, are countries like Poland, Turkey, Norway, the three Baltic states, Thailand and even some of the democratising Gulf states.

Put this group together with the existing membership and one would have a kind of Commonwealth Mark Two, a rallying point for the planet's "good guys" and a coalition of real might (it would contain more than a third of the world's GNP), size, experience and influence.

It would also be a vastly greater source of soft power and influence for Britain - the origin of the whole undertaking - than anything on offer from Brussels, or indeed from the battered United Nations.

Even on issues like handling Iran - a matter for the Asian powers and Russia as much as it is for the West (perhaps even more so), a strong and wise voice from this greater Commonwealth would get a better reception than threats of force from Washington, or the ignored diplomacy of the EU.

A Mark Two Commonwealth is not the complete answer. But it could do better than anything forthcoming from the dated 20th-century institutions we have inherited.

It would also be a golden chance for Britain to make her full contribution, in a way that our feeble foreign policy just does not permit at present.

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