ABSTRACT This study examines whether intra-regional trade promotes export diversification among CARICOM small states. Using panel data for 2005–2023, export concentration is measured through the Herfindahl–Hirschman, Theil, and Gini indices and estimated using fixed-effects panel models, with system GMM employed as a robustness check. The results reveal a statistically significant positive relationship between intra-regional trade and export concentration, indicating that deeper regional integration reinforces specialisation rather than diversification. These findings challenge conventional expectations of integration-led diversification and highlight structural constraints facing small economies. The results suggest that regional trade must be complemented by targeted industrial and capability-building policies to broaden export bases and strengthen economic resilience.

ABSTRACT This article examines the engagement by Commonwealth States with the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families 1990. It explores States’ motivations for ratification or non-ratification of the Convention, and key aspects of State practice. While it notes a concerning lack of reciprocity between origin and destination States for migrant workers, it also highlights some noteworthy bilateral and multilateral engagement between States. Ongoing vulnerability of irregular and undocumented migrant workers is also identified. Migrant rights in the Commonwealth continue to be overshadowed by the spectre of State sovereignty.

ABSTRACT This lecture speaks about remembrance, about how we remember and, mostly, about how we forget features of the slave trade – to our peril, and to that of the international community. Such forgetting or obliteration of the past denigrates our perceptions of the present. However, whatever is obliterated by memory never really disappears. It submerges, then resurfaces. It re-emerges with sturdy determination to carve and sculpt our current existence. Hence, this lecture is entitled ‘The Re-emergence of the (Internal) Slave Trade’. These remarks largely derive from the author’s persistent delving into international criminal law as a practitioner, a scholar and as an eternal student. They also emanate from her voice, as a descendant of enslaved ancestors.

ABSTRACT In recent years, the Western Cape (WC) independence movement has garnered significant interest, both nationally and globally. This article focuses on the main proponents of independence and their motivations, arguments and tactics, highlighting the prominence of political and economic grievances as the driving forces of WC secessionism. It is also argued that the growth of far-right populism and conspiracy theories globally has provided the movement with a platform to advance its secessionist cause. Nonetheless, this article will emphasise that the route to an independent WC state is highly uncertain, lacking a firm basis in both national and international legal frameworks.

ABSTRACT Drawing on primary data, this paper shows how the everyday lives of refugees are shaped not only by the state but also by a constellation of socially embedded power structures. Focusing on Afghan refugees in Pakistan, we empirically explore how overlapping sovereign relations – formal, petty, and informal – symbolically enacted by diverse (sovereign) actors create the social environment in which refugee lives develop. These relations not only politicise refugee identities, making them fluid, but also influence their survival strategies. Our findings reveal tactical silence, calculated (in)visibility, and spatial mobility as key forms of resistance that refugees use to navigate precarious social terrains.

ABSTRACT Situated in the middle of complex geopolitical circumstances in South Asia, Bangladesh is crucial in India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, not least because Bangladesh offers a vital linkage between India’s North-Eastern states and the mainland. This article examines India’s foreign policy towards Bangladesh under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2014, Modi sent a clear message of his intention to revive India’s neighbourhood policy as a key component of his foreign policy goals, by inviting the government heads of South Asian countries to his oath-taking ceremony. His visit to Bangladesh in 2015 reflected the significance of bilateral relations between the countries. Since then, the Modi administration has taken a number of steps to strengthen its ties with Bangladesh. This move is also politically significant in the period of growing Chinese influence in India’s backyard under the Belt and Road Initiative.