Peter Marshall montage[clockwise] Peter Marshall, Peter Marhsall chairs the final conference session with Lord Ahmad and asks a question during an earlier session.

Is the Commonwealth a church, a club or a beehive?

This was one of the areas explored when the Round Table Journal’s Editor Venkat Iyer sat down with Sir Peter Marshall, Past President of the Royal Commonwealth Society, to discuss today’s Commonwealth and its future.

As a former Deputy Commonwealth Secretary-General (1983-88), a former British diplomat and having served as a Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Peter Marshall is well known in Commonwealth circles for putting the organisation into perspective.

The two men held this discussion on the fringes of an October conference, entitled ‘The UK, the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Summit 2018’, organised by the editorial board of The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs in partnership with the Royal Over-Seas League, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (International) and the Commonwealth Association.

Their eight-minute discussion included Brexit, Europe, the world and the Commonwealth’s role as well as a view on the UK hosting of the 2018 Commonwealth Leaders’ Summit.

[Cameraman: Mervyn Clingan. Producer: Debbie Ransome.] The Round Table wishes to thank the Commonwealth Secretariat for the use of its facilities for the filming of this interview.

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The modern Commonwealth as the “mother of all networks” by Lord Howell of Guildford, President of the Royal Commonwealth Society