| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Have they opened the floodgates? This question was being asked after the Kampala CHOGM agreed to receive applications for membership of the Commonwealth from countries that had never been British colonies. After more than a decade of uncertainty about this issue - ever since Mozambique joined in 1995 as an exceptional case - Heads of Government at Kampala approved the Report of the Committee on Commonwealth Membership finally agreeing to entertain further such applications and providing a procedure for handling them. Comment on this decision has been muted and ambiguous and usually focuses on one or other of the known new aspirants, such as Rwanda, Yemen and Algeria, rather than the general principles that should govern criteria for membership or the long term shape of the Commonwealth. The purpose of this article is to review the whole history of the expansion of the Commonwealth and consider how the issue of criteria has been resolved.
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