Introduzione. Il Commonwealth e la «sfida etnica» in Africa

This monographic issue aims to reflect more fully on the nature of certain conflicts – ethnic, socio-economic, religious – within so-called British Africa, while pursuing a threefold objective: to highlight their composite nature; to reflect on the different attempts to resolve them; and to shed more light on both British foreign policy and the role of the Commonwealth as an instrument of transnational global governance. Investigating reasons and modalities of the new British prominence in Africa, therefore, also represents an approach of studying the Commonwealth from an «outside in» perspective, according to the most recent historiographical interpretations.