The Enduring Crown Commonwealth: essential reading on the strength of the CANZUK alliance

This book, examining the post-War history and future prospects of the constitutionally-based alliance between the United Kingdom and its principal former “Old Commonwealth” colonies of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, has been published to coincide with the aftermath of the coronation of King Charles III.

That is shrewd timing. For decades, nay-sayers had forecast that the CANZUK monarchies (they are each independent) would retain their connection with the Crown for the duration of the late Queen’s reign, but the advent of a new monarch would probably lead to a severing of the traditional royal link. In fairness, some of that speculation was effectively a tribute to the exceptional success and popularity of Elizabeth II’s reign; now, with the new monarch crowned in a ceremony from which he was escorted by men of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other Commonwealth forces, the essentially seamless nature of the historical bond is becoming more obvious.

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 (there are 30 pages of endnotes at the back of the volume), 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.

They also know how to engage the reader’s attention at key moments in the narrative. Following the Introduction, which could be read as a stand-alone essay in its own right, Part I begins, literally, with a bang. It is headed by a Prelude, consisting of the text of an Admiralty General Signal to Her Majesty’s ships stationed off the coast of Korea, following the death of King George VI, 6 February, 1952.

“At 1100 tomorrow RN and Commonwealth ships prepare to fire a Royal Salute using live ammunition at the Queen’s enemies…”

 It is followed by an account by one of the commanding officers of the bombardment of the Communist shore batteries, as the Royal Navy combined ceremonial and offensive activities, followed by the reading of the Royal Proclamation and the drinking of the Queen’s health in the wardroom.

The authors are skilled at finding such 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.

The structure of the book ensures that this detailed study retains overall coherence. It is divided into three parts. Part I (The Rise and Fall of the Crown Commonwealth) looks at the situation from the Queen’s accession amid rather fevered proclamations of a “New Elizabethan Age”, through the upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, to the efforts to “phase out and end the Monarchy in an age of neglect and assertive nationalism”.

Here the authors take an interesting stance: “The popular view is that the British world succumbed to triumphant, long-thwarted nationalisms. The reality is not so straightforward. Historically, nationalism could not be ‘thwarted’ so long as it was based on a local patriotism that was simultaneously pan-British.”

 Their conclusion is that, by turning to the EEC, “it was actually Britain itself that set the pace”. Today, post-Brexit, that analysis seems hard to refute.

Part II (The Royal Sun Rises Again: Restoration, Revival and Reconvergence) examines the demise of the “Chardonnay Republicans” in Australia and the similar re-embrace of the Crown by Canadians, e.g. by restoring the “Royal” title to its military in 2011, an initiative in which one of the co-authors, Michael J Smith, played an important role.

Part III (Long To Reign Over Us?) considers the future prospects of the alliance under the Crown, as “strategic cousins in a multipolar world”. That is an important consideration, with Australia threatened by China and responding with the AUKUS security pact, whose further significance is that it unites two of the four CANZUK nations with the United States in a major defence initiative.

The chief contribution this book makes is to induct the reader into an awareness that the Crown Commonwealth is about far more than a casual choice for the citizens of three countries whether they should continue cleaving to their cultural heritage of monarchic government or opt to have a retired politician in a suit as their head of state. There are signs that some Australians, for example, are beginning to recognise that, in the Crown, they have an offshore heritage that, so far from negating their national identity, affirms it in what is becoming the incoherence of a post-globalist world.

The British reader should beware of regarding this study as an investigation of three Commonwealth nations, with the UK as neutral referee; being Canadians, the authors examine Britain as clinically as the other three kingdoms, with resultant aperçus that contribute a penetrating outsider view of the mother country and its politics. For example, they describe the controversial ex-prime minister Boris Johnson as “a rare UK politician with an instinctively pro-CANZUK outlook…”

This massively researched and authoritative work should be compulsory reading for the many Britons of vastly different backgrounds who have dealings of any kind – diplomatic, trade, cultural or even familial – with any of the three countries featured. It affords great insight into the recent past, present situation and future prospects of those important nations.

One cavil that it feels almost churlish to raise, in the light of the vast deposit of information laid before the reader, is to regret that the existing text had not been preceded by at least a brief account of the earlier history of the three former colonies, including Canada’s former relationship with the French monarchy. But, in fairness to the authors, it must be conceded that any abbreviation of the existing volume, running to 363 pages, would have been greatly to its detriment, while a longer text would almost certainly have caused insuperable publication problems.

In those circumstances, it is clear it would have been impractical to take the narrative back before the accession of Elizabeth II and that the Crown Commonwealth evolved sufficiently during her reign to merit this in-depth study. The question presents itself, however: if this volume is as well received as it deserves to be, might there be any prospect of a “prequel”?

Without underestimating the enduring republican undercurrent in a nation such as Australia, the authors are generally optimistic about the survival of the Crown Commonwealth. They canvass the possibility of CANZUK becoming a more official alliance in a changing world, but accept that it remains valuable even unofficially: “Whatever its faults, the system has been made to work, exceptionally well, in practice. There is no need to change it, even if it could be done.”

That is a persuasive argument, in a world reeling from the Covid pandemic, supply chain disruption, the Ukraine war, instability in the global financial system and the rising menace of China. It is not a propitious time to discard ancient family ties and these two authors have made that case persuasively, in this information-packed, perceptively argued and highly readable book.

The Enduring Crown Commonwealth: The Past, Present, and Future of the UK-Canada-ANZ Alliance and Why It Matters, by Michael J Smith and Stephen Klimczuk-Massion. (Rowman & Littlefield, £29).

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