What’s the point of it?
- ️Sat Mar 19 2016
The new secretary-general will have to be tough, dynamic and crafty if the oddest of post-imperial clubs is to rekindle its sense of purpose
“THERE’S been an existential question mark over the Commonwealth for some time,” says a seasoned diplomat in its secretariat in London. “The Commonwealth has been dead, absolutely dead, for the past eight years,” laments Richard Dowden, director of the Royal Africa Society (and a former Economist writer), taking a swipe at the outgoing secretary-general, Kamalesh Sharma, an urbane Indian diplomat who has run the show since 2008. As Queen Elizabeth nears 90 after 64 years as its titular head, some wonder if the club will survive when she goes.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “What’s the point of it?”
From the March 19th 2016 edition
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