The Commonwealth of Nations as an actor of the soft power of the British Empire

The object of the study is the soft power of the British Empire in the 20th century; the subject is a unique interstate organization, which has been functioning under the name of the Commonwealth of Nations since 1949. The author examines such aspects of the topic as the potential of the soft power of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, key success factors of London's policy in this area, including the historical legacy of the British Empire; the process of creating the British Commonwealth of Nations, the activities of the renewed Commonwealth of Nations in the second half of the twentieth century; ideological foundations, principles of work and specific projects of the organization, which had a serious impact on the formation of the soft power system and public diplomacy of the British Empire; finally, in general, the role of the Commonwealth of Nations as an actor of soft power in the transformation and modernization of the imperial Albion project. The methodological basis of the research is the principle of historicism and scientific objectivity, a systematic approach, methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, observation. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that in modern historiography, the analysis of the activities of the Commonwealth of Nations as an actor of the soft power of the British Empire is carried out for the first time. The author concludes that thanks to the activities of the Commonwealth, Great Britain was able to consolidate the reconfiguration of its imperial project on a fundamentally new basis. A special role in this process was played by the technologies of soft power, which long before the appearance of J. P. Blavatsky's theory itself. They were actively used by the political elites of the United Kingdom. And it was within the framework of the Commonwealth of Nations that they were used most actively. This fact allowed London not only to maintain its influence over a significant part of the former empire, but also to create a powerful resource and institutional base that allows the UK to effectively pursue a policy of soft power in the international arena.

Soft power, Public diplomacy, The British Empire, Great Britain, The Commonwealth, The British Commonwealth of Nations, British Dominions, Commonwealth Games, British education, The British Monarchy