Book Reviews
Abstract
Commonwealth: Inter- and Non-state Contributions to Global Governance Timothy M. Shaw Routledge, London and New York, 2008 , pp. x+160, 14.99 pb, ISBN 978-0-415-3511-8 This book forms part of the Global Institutions series published by Routledge and edited by Thomas Weiss and Rorden Wilkinson. It is positive that a study on the Commonwealth has been included in the series as there are very few books devoted to its role within the global environment of the twenty-first century. It is also fitting that Tim Shaw should have been asked to write it given his long experience as an academic within a variety of Commonwealth universities, not least of which was as Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. The book is divided into six chapters and covers a range of issues. It contains some useful historical data in chapter two particularly regarding South Asia and South Africa (although there is no mention of the Caribbean). However, as expected, the majority of the book seeks to locate the Commonwealth within the contemporary globalised environment. In chapter three, Shaw examines human security, rights and development through the lens of the different elements that make up the more formal