Abstract
Between 1965 and 1990, the Commonwealth - an association of independent states emerging out of the decolonisation of the British Empire - took on an increasingly activist role focusing on racial and social justice and developing new subaltern (geo) political cultures. Drawing on a rich collection of new oral histories with politicians and diplomats from within the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth governments, this article focuses on the period after the formation of the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1965. The paper argues that the political institutions of the Commonwealth acted as a site for ‘subaltern geopolitics’ (Sharp, 2011, 2013), substantially developing this idea through a focus on the specific practices, networks, and places through which an alternative geopolitics was produced. It makes four important contributions to the conceptualisation of subaltern geopolitics and to political geography more broadly. First, in focusing on the specific practices of political actors, the paper fleshes out the mundane, fortuitous, messy, and sometimes-contradictory ways in which alternative geopolitical projects were put into practice. Second, the paper highlights the role of social and affective relations – such as those of friendship and familiarity - in geopolitics. Third, it illuminates the need to pay attention to the specific histories and geographies that underpin political action, arguing that the networks and spaces within which key Commonwealth leaders were embedded reinforced and enabled the construction of a post-colonial Commonwealth geopolitics. Fourth, and finally, the paper demonstrates the methodological value of oral history evidence for interdisciplinary research in political geography, diplomacy and international relations.
Highlights
After the foundation of the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1965, the Commonwealth - an association of independent states emerging out of the decolonisation of the British Empire – began to take on an increasingly activist role
The rest of this paper explores the construction of a new subaltern geopolitics in the Commonwealth after 1965
The closeness of these relationships that Ramphal in particular brought to and cultivated in his role are clearly reflected in the informality and friendships captured in Fig. 2, which allows us to reflect on the importance of ‘affective social worlds’ (Bunnell et al, 2012, p. 491) within geopolitical practice
Summary
After the foundation of the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1965, the Commonwealth - an association of independent states emerging out of the decolonisation of the British Empire – began to take on an increasingly activist role. The paper focuses on the Commonwealth Secretariat and explores how, in the context of decolonisation, this new association created its legitimacy with the leaders of newly independent states It argues that the first two Secretaries General worked hard to develop distinctive geopolitical positions for the Commonwealth differentiated from those of the UK or the British Empire, but these colonial legacies produced valuable commonalities – of education and experience - on which to build new post-colonial geopolitical cultures. This was produced in large part through the practices of politicians, diplomats and administrators, and the section of the paper focuses on the role of some of these key people It begins by examining the process of institution building at the Secretariat, highlighting in particular the importance of creating new Commonwealth imaginaries through new staff and diplomatic norms. He was well known in the Commonwealth; he had been Secretary General of the East African High Commission which ran railways and postal services and so on for Kenya, Uganda
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