Military Ties

Abstract

Military co-operation between the self-governing members of the Commonwealth has, since the Second World War, never been a matter of comprehensive multilateral action. There has been no pretence or semblance of such a relationship. Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conferences in the 1950s from time to time debated the international situation but the outcome was always diplomatic, political or economic rather than military. As Empire progressively became Commonwealth, with members achieving fully independent status, the titles, but not the function, of certain British military institutions were slow to reflect the changes. The Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) retained his title until after the effective imperial structure had disappeared, and eventually the Imperial Defence College became the Royal College of Defence Studies, attracting to its prestigious courses senior officers, civil servants and diplomats from a far wider range of apparently friendly countries than ever before. Even such institutions in their heyday were essentially Anglocentric, even British national, in terms of their management and control.