The Enduring Crown Commonwealth

Reviews / Votes

In this timely and insightful study, the authors explain how, after Brexit, Britain began to aggressively look for new alliance partners and establish special bonds with three English-speaking states: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These countries have more in common with one another than most other groups of countries do. Together, they constitute a significant bloc and could help strengthen not only the Commonwealth but also their American and European allies. The book provides an inspiring vision for a future where the strong ties between these Commonwealth states-including a common language, history, culture, and political systems-and concrete steps toward reestablishing cooperation will increase mutual benefits. This "CANZUK" alliance is reconverging on issues of trade, defense, foreign policy, freedom of movement, and other areas. Despite the many comprehensive trade deals struck between them, several things could still derail the reconvergence, including a possible breakup of the UK itself in the event of Scottish independence. However, their common history, tradition, culture, language, and political systems should quickly resolve any emerging hurdles. Their commonalities will prove much stronger than their differences. Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. * Choice Reviews * An excellent book. Without denigrating the wider Commonwealth, the authors have focussed on the special bonds between Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. There are some splendid observations which reflect well upon the operations of the Constitutional Monarchy. -- The Hon John Howard OM AC, Prime Minister of Australia, 1996-2007 CANZUK is not about nostalgia or history - though, given what we have fought for together, Heaven knows that some nostalgia is justified. No, the real case for a partnership among the Crown Commonwealth states is futuristic. In a world where distance matters less and less, and where cultural proximity trumps geographical proximity, our economic and political interoperability has more relevance than it has ever had before - a point beautifully made by Michael J. Smith & Stephen Klimczuk-Massion. -- The Rt Hon The Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, UK Board of Trade, author and columnist It was the late and much-loved Queen Elizabeth who said that the Commonwealth was 'an entirely new conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man.' In doing so she showed insight and foresight far beyond many politicians and foreign affairs experts. The common purpose and commitment of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK is part of the binding force which, far from standing apart from the rest, weaves the modern and evolving Commonwealth together. This farsighted book is invaluable in showing us how it is doing so. -- The Rt Hon The Lord Howell of Guildford PC, Former UK Cabinet Minister; Former President of the Royal Commonwealth Society This is a timely and insightful study. With Britain having declined the submergence of its institutions and relations with its closest allies in Euro-integration, and the United States in a somewhat unpredictable phase, it is a better time than ever since World War II to reexamine the potential for the senior Commonwealth countries to coordinate their affairs more closely. Geographic dispersal is no longer a serious problem, we have more in common with each other than with anyone else, and together, constitute a significant bloc in the world, and a strengthened ally of America and Europe. -- Conrad Black (The Rt Hon The Lord Black of Crossharbour), Founder and Columnist, National Post, Canada The UK voting to leave the EU was bewildering to me, but as this book well articulates, now that Brexit is done there is some fertile ground for the UK to re-engage with the old Commonwealth. In this world all countries need all the friends they can get. Nurture these relationships and the rewards will follow-we all still have a lot in common, especially our values and aspirations. -- The Rt Hon Sir Donald McKinnon ONZ GCVO, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, 2000-2008; Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand,1990-1996 This is an important book and, as Andrew Roberts observes in his Foreword, "revelatory about how four countries can come together in an ever-closer union for the benefit not merely of themselves, but also ultimately for that of the rest of the world too". Nothing quite like it has been attempted before: there have been detailed studies of the constitutions of the constituent nations and many geopolitical commentaries (which this work also is), but the distinctive feature of this study is its unwavering focus on the Crown as the cultural and constitutional lynchpin of this exceptional alliance. The authors, both Canadians and therefore personally engaged with the issues they discuss, have done prodigious research; when they make firm assertions, as they frequently do, they support them with solid evidence, some of it previously little known. They have successfully avoided the chief pitfall of collaboration: the text reads seamlessly, as if it had been written by a single author. The authors are skilled at finding apposite anecdotes to lend colour to their text. In fact, they are skilled at a considerable number of things: maintaining equilibrium among the four nations they are discussing; bringing their distinctive constitutional histories and past political leaders vividly to life; ensuring that their advocacy of the continuing value of the monarchy remains a consistent thread throughout their narrative, without becoming monotonous; and viewing their subjects within both the wider Commonwealth and the global geopolitical situation. -- Gerald Warner, Journalist * Reactions * This is an absorbing and illuminating book. * The Round Table * For some the Commonwealth of Nations is a fig-leaf of imperialism, to others a teary-eyed reminder of lasting bonds of friendship, while to many citizens in the states that enjoy its membership it is a minor and inoffensive irrelevance. All of these things can be simultaneously, and varyingly, true, and two Canadian authors have waded into the discussion with an interesting volume surveying the 'hard core' of the Commonwealth: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom-inevitably known as CANZUK. * The European Conservative * The Enduring Crown Commonwealth, by Michael Smith and Stephen Klimczuk-Massion, is a spirited and wholly convincing defense of the CANZUK idea that every American ought to applaud and support. It argues eloquently for a much closer integration of the lands over which King Charles III reigns-principally Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. and their dependencies (hence CANZUK)-so that we can attain a critical mass in world affairs. The U.S. would therefore acquire a powerful ally on whom she could rely much better than she can on the European Union. * Claremont Review of Books * History has in effect preserved the dignified side of the Crown union of the realm with virtually no efficient side. The Enduring Crown Commonwealth constitutes an excellent description of that side and its development through recent history. The authors have also laid out a useful discussion of some of the efficient tasks that might be established by institutional connections. * Quadrant * In The Enduring Crown Commonwealth, Michael J. Smith and Stephen Klimczuck-Massion make a strong case for the revitalizing of relations - trade, parliamentary, judicial and educational - between Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. . . . [the book] is a thoughtful, provocative but ultimately very sensible look at a possibility of collusion that has been winking on the horizon for well over a century. There is an urgency to the argument in this book that is both compelling and convincing. * The Dorchester Review *