Are you willing to be made nothing? Is Commonwealth reform possible?

A new round of Commonwealth reform proposals commenced at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of 2009. An ensuing report, titled A Commonwealth of the people: time for urgent reform, contained a long list of proposals that eventually resulted in 2013 in the adoption of the Commonwealth Charter. Many classic international organizations are in need of reform, but this is, of course, challenging. This new Commonwealth reform process will not lead to satisfying changes and will not make it a more relevant actor in global governance. The year 2015 marks the Commonwealth Secretariat's first half‐century. We take this symbolic marker to push for a forward‐looking exercise, arguing that because the true nature of the Commonwealth is often misunderstood, a better understanding of the organization is essential before embarking on any successful change‐management project. In the article we identify four different kinds of Commonwealth: three of a ‘formal’ nature (the official, bureaucratic and the people's Commonwealth) and a fourth ‘informal’ one (Commonwealth Plus). By describing the potential of these four different kinds of Commonwealth, we can anticipate better the challenges with which the Commonwealth network is faced, both internal (including its mandate, its British imperial past and dominance, the organization's leadership and its membership) and external (other international organizations, other Commonwealths, rivalry with regional organizations and the rise of global policy networks). Consequently, this should lead to a better and more sustainable debate about the Commonwealth's future role in global governance.     

POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF GLOBAL SEA-LEVEL RISE ON CANADIAN COASTS

The sea-level rise that may result from global climate change is placed within the context of past and present sea-level changes on Canadian coasts. To assess future impact, a dimensionless index of sensitivity is determined. Coasts with low, moderate, and high sensitivity constitute 67%, 30%, and 3% of the total coastline, respectively. The most sensitive regions are: (1) several parts of the Maritime Provinces; (2) two areas of the British Columbia coast; and (3) a large part of the Beaufort Sea coast. Impacts in four regions - Bay of Fundy, Beaufort Sea, Fraser Delta, and Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia - are discussed in detail. It is argued that the societal response to changes in sea level should favour retreat and accommodation strategies.
Il est possible que les changements climatiques globaux provoqueront une élévation du niveau de la mer. Nous examinons ce scénario dans le contexte des changements passés et présents du niveau de la mer sur les côtes canadiennes. Pour évaluer l'impact de l'élévation prévue un indice non dimensionnel de vulnérabilité est déterminé. Les côtes à la vulnérabilité basse, modérée et élevée constituent, respectivement, 67%, 30%, et 3% de tout le littoral. Les régions les plus vulnérables sont: (1) plusieurs régions dans les provinces maritimes; (2) deux zones sur la côte de la Colombie britannique; et (3) la plupart de la côte de la mer de Beaufort. Nous discutons en détail les impacts dans quatre régions, soit la baie Fundy, la mer Beaufort, la delta du Fraser et la rivage dit 'Eastern Shore' de la Nouvelle-Écosse. Nous estimons que la réponse sociale aux changements du niveau de la mer devrait favoriser des stratégies de retraite et d'accommodement.     

Commonwealth perspectives on International Relations

The parallel development of the inter‐ and non‐governmental Commonwealths on the one hand and the field of International Relations and its oldest journal, The Round Table, on the other, should not go unnoticed at the start of the second decade of the century. This article suggests that the Commonwealth nexus has always constituted a distinctive perspective and debate in both the metropole and the rest of the Commonwealth's expanding official and unofficial networks. The Commonwealth 'School’ both reinforces and contrasts with other non‐US and non‐hegemonic approaches presently animating the field.     

Redfern as the Heart(h): Living (Black) in Inner Sydney

Before the arrival of the ‘white fella’ over 200 years ago, the Gadigal people and others of the Eora Darug occupied the place where the city of Sydney now stands. At the heart of this second tier global city, the inner‐city suburb of Redfern has become a mainstay of urban Aboriginal identity. Yet, this troubled and stigmatised focal point of populist media representations and government policy does not reflect the diversity of urban Aboriginal life in inner Sydney. This paper draws on a range of sources about living in Redfern, from the difficult politics of establishing and retaining an Aboriginal urban space and place in the contemporary gentrifying city – achieved in large part through the establishment of now long‐standing service provision – through to the rise of alternate visions and lives and many more ‘ordinary’ ways of living in the city. This paper seeks to highlight that Aboriginal people variously inhabit, occupy, and sometimes thrive in Australia's first colonial city and the site of invasion. It also provides several of the author's personal experiences of engagement with some of these processes.     

(Post)Colonial [1] Encounters: gendered racialisations in Australian courtrooms [2]

This article identifies how the Australian legal system has generated knowledge about ‘traditional’ gender relations in Aboriginal Australia. Using a sample of artefact cases from the Australian judicial system, constructions of Aboriginal gender relations are mapped. By tracing knowledge production in these cases, it demonstrates how the non-Aboriginal Australian legal system has fabricated its own versions of ‘Aboriginal Customary Laws’, or Aboriginal ‘traditions’ about violence committed by Aboriginal men, against Aboriginal women. (Post)colonial understandings about the Aboriginal ‘other’ have occupied spaces in legal understandings and then been enforced in law. The Australian judicial system itself is therefore guilty of perpetuating and privileging the ‘colonial’ in these encounters.