Since people are asking about the Commonwealth, I figure I should explain what's different in this Commonwealth of Nations as opposed to our world, and what it does for the nations involved in it.
The Commonwealth ITTL is more or less way of uniting the former nations of the British Empire, but in modern times there is one important caveat - as a group of independent nations, nobody takes or gives orders, but everyone is free to make suggestions and ideas and improvements, and the primary goals of the Commonwealth in modern times are based on dispute resolution, economic growth, civil and labour rights, trade freedom, environmental protection and defense of its fellow members where it is necessary, the latter point a potent defense owing to the Commonwealth's ability to bring to hear immense military forces. Since Israel's accession in 1989, the Commonwealth has dropped the pretense that one needs to be a former British colony, and so talk of joining has included many nations, particularly those looking to get into the economic markets of the Commonwealth. The 'Central Commonwealth' nations take this a few steps further still by allowing visa-free travel and living within the borders of the country, which has been a major factor in growing social and economic relations between them. To maintain membership in the Commonwealth a nation has to maintain (as close as possible) the principles of the Salisbury Declaration - world peace, individual liberty, human rights, equality and fair and beneficial trade - and maintain friendly relations with other members of the Commonwealth. In the Anglosphere nations involved in this the Central Commonwealth has been influential in allowing them to work with each other as well as with the United States, and one of the results is that the Central Commonwealth nations' connections with Britain and Ireland has resulted in these nations have visa-free access to the European Union as well as with the British Isles, which has been supported by France, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian Nations as well. India is not yet a Central Commonwealth nation, but by the 1990s their rapid economic growth and huge domestic market has made them a place the rest of the Commonwealth wants to do business.
The Commonwealth has its organization based in London, with satellite offices in Montreal, Sydney, Jerusalem, Mumbai, Nairobi, Pretoria and Hong Kong, where citizens involved can seek information and help with regards to a nation involved in the Commonwealth and representatives of nations that are members of the Commonwealth can seek dispute resolution services, with both the Secretariat in London and the satellite offices being staffed with dispute resolution specialists, having been nominated by a member state and confirmed by representatives (usually at the meetings of the heads of state or heads of government) by two-thirds vote, and no specialist nominated by a member state can be involved in any resolution involving that nation. There is no legal requirement to stick to the results of that resolution, but in practice it is very rare that the resolutions do not get results. The most common disputes are economic in nature, but it is rare that the nations involved do not come to good resolutions, and in many cases the countries involved if they lose in dispute resolutions find ways of giving back advantages. The Central Commonwealth nations all have 'Commonwealth Ministers' who in effect are foreign ministers who deal exclusively in matters relating to members of the Commonwealth, and this is also true of many influential members of the Commonwealth outside the Central Commonwealth - India, South Africa, Israel and Chile all have such ministers. One of the results of this is while high-tech industry remains very much alive in the British Isles and White Dominions, India has overwhelmingly taken over the mantle as the Commonwealth's center for industry, a position which has provided India will millions of new jobs and pushed the environmental protection concern to the forefront. India's high population density, as well as its history of pollution incidents and industrial disasters - the infamous Bhopal Chemical Disaster in December 1984 drove this home as though with a sledgehammer - made sure of this. Likewise, South Africa's dark history in the apartheid era has pushed the idea of economic growth that benefits all to the forefront of Commonwealth. As all of the White Dominions have such laws, they found little difficulty with India and South Africa's desires.
The visa-free travel made sure that tourism and travel between the Central Commonwealth nations has boomed enormously since the dawn of the Jet Age, and today the tourist, trade and social connection routes between various portions of the Commonwealth are very, very busy. As many as 700,000 Brits, 65,000 Irish, 200,000 Australians, 25,000 New Zealanders, 150,000 Indians and 12,500 Israelis live in Canada as part of the visa-free living programs of the Commonwealth, a situation mirrored with Canadians living abroad. Canada's contributions to the trade of the Commonwealth include oil (Canada has been Britain's largest foreign source of oil since WWII), minerals, metals, aircraft and aircraft parts, cars, agricultural equipment and food in vast quantities, along with many niche markets including everything from some of the world's best coffee (courtesy of Jamaica and Trinidad), consumer electronics, some tropical woods and alcoholic beverages - Canadian whiskey is sold throughout the Commonwealth, and while the Australians (and increasingly South Africans) dominate the wine markets, Canada sells lots of its own wine, and everyone's beer is sold everywhere. British-built and Canadian-built luxury cars are common across the world, while Australia's creation of 'Utes' (and in modern times, South Africa's smaller 'Mini trucks', which the South Africans call 'Bakkies') have become a common sight across the Commonwealth, including Canada, which is a much larger market than the others for American-built cars, including pickup trucks and vans.[1] Canada's massive interest in General Motors and GM's Holden division and Canadian, Australian and Indian interests in British Leyland (which became Austin Rover Triumph in 1982 and was split into Rover Group, Triumph Automobiles and Leyland Heavy Industries in 1988) made sure that while American and British automobiles were available worldwide, local assembly was a very common occurrence, and many countries encouraged this as a job creation measure. Vickers, Hawker Siddeley, Canadair and Bombardier supply a huge portion of the aircraft used in the Commonwealth, along with the Concorde being used by Air Canada as well as Air France and British Airways, and Canadian money was the impetus for the Concorde B, which first flew in 1980.[2] Australia and South Africa's huge mineral wealth allows them to supply India with vast quantities of raw materials, which allows India to have the majority of the textiles business in the Commonwealth, both of the lower-priced variety but also many of the higher-end varieties as well. Canada is by far the largest non-European destination for British and Irish tourists (this also true for France, the Netherlands and Italy) and the 1990s and 2000s saw South Africa get into this game as well, doing particularly well with Australians and Canadians.
The Commonwealth's head is (and has been since its formation) the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently Queen Elizabeth II. The Commonwealth's rules have allowed Republics to be full members since its creation, and Elizabeth II has during her reign visited every Commonwealth member save Rwanda and Mozambique, and a number of her visits have been more than a little noteworthy, including visiting Jerusalem in April 1984, where she was greeted at the airport by both Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at her arrival, and South Africa in June 1994, where she was a host of a gala held in honor of Nelson Mandela's inauguration, as well as being the first time a British monarch had visited South Africa since King George VI's 1947 visit which ultimately was a factor in the 1948 National Party victory. (Her Majesty, who knew this, spoke to Mandela about it, saying "I do hope my visit here will not raise trouble", to which Mandela replied "Most certainly not, Your Majesty, I believe your visit here speaks to what you and the people of the world believe will be our future." Indeed, Elizabeth II is known to be a big supporter of the Commonwealth and its goals and gains, and has been known to make strategic visits to help with the Commonwealth's goals. The Commonwealth's operational head is its Secretary General, who is almost always a prominent diplomat from a Commonwealth nation, who is elected at the Heads of Government Meetings for a four-year term and can serve two terms.
Part of the Commonwealth's importance is indeed the mutual defense agreements and treaties among the members. Under the rules, the Commonwealth was not obliged to support any other alliance (this done primarily with India's pushing so that they would, as they were non-aligned then, not get dragged into a NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict), but they are obliged to support one another in the event of one of the nations requesting it as a result of a direct attack. This provision has never been used - India has considered it against Pakistan but never actually used it, and the Commonwealth declined to talk of it during the Gulf War or Rwanda - but it remains active, and can be called upon. This provision is ignored by few, simply because of the immense forces involved - the Commonwealth members' military forces include nine aircraft carriers (three British, three Canadian, two Indian, one Australian), a battleship (HMS Vanguard), three battlecruisers (all Indian Navy), better than 200 ocean-going surface warships, sixty submarines, over 2000 combat aircraft and the ability to land over a division and a half of military forces anywhere in the world as needed and keep them supported. This immense jackhammer gives the Commonwealth members the ability to call on huge forces in the event of aggression, and during the Hong Kong Crisis of 1989-90 this hammer got shown off, and it got shown off the public in truly immense fashion in the 1999 Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of NATO, when the fleets of both NATO and the Commonwealth showed up in huge fashion.[3] The vast military power of the Commonwealth also assists with the support of their own industries - Britain, Canada and Australia retain sizable shipbuilding industries which create civilian vessels as well as military ones, as well as aerospace industries and electronics firms. The Panavia Tornado is the go-to attack aircraft for many of the Commonwealth's armed forces, and Britain, Canada and Australia (and South Africa after 2001) use the Challenger 1 and Challenger 2 main battle tanks, while other vehicles come from throughout the Commonwealth. India's HAL Dhruv light helicopter is quite well liked by many Commonwealth countries (particularly Australia) for its durability and ability to handle hot-and-high conditions, and the standardization of ammunition to the Commonwealth's standards (those being either 5.56x45mm or 7.1x43mm, the latter less common but used religiously by Canada and Australia) is slowly gaining traction. Canada's armed forces (and Australia, New Zealand and Israel, and to a lesser extent Britain) are based on having the absolute best training and equipment money can buy as a way of having the absolute best combat efficiency per soldier, and Canada's famed Defense Research Laboratories outside Ottawa and Valcartier Arsenal near Quebec City are some of the best places on Earth for the development of better infantry and small to medium-sized arms. In addition, Gerald Bull's famed Space Research Corporation in Toronto and its Cape Breton Test Range, makers of the world's best field artillery and mortar weapons, add to the advancements.
[1] There are lots of Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Ram pickup trucks in Canada, but Canada also buys lots of the smaller trucks, and the majority full-size pickups sold in Canada are sold with diesel engines owing to Canada's lower fuel taxes on low-sulfur diesel.
[2] The Concorde here was a result of work by Aerospatiale, Vickers and Hawker Siddeley, and flew first in 1974, just after the oil crisis, which severely hurt its commercial prospects. Despite this, Air Canada and Iran Air joined British Airways and Air France in buying the Concorde, and the Concorde B was a longer-ranged version, powered by Rolls-Royce Orenda engines (which didn't need noisy, fuel-hogging afterburners), pushing its operational range to 5,100 nautical miles. Air Canada's original Concorde routes ran from Montreal and Ottawa to London, Paris and Amsterdam, but service from Toronto to those cities in 1977, Barbados and Jamaica to London in 1979, Vancouver and Seattle to Hawaii in 1980, Montreal and Ottawa to Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad in 1981 and Vancouver to Sydney via Hawaii and Fiji in 1984.
[3] The 1999 Fleet Review was attended by over 150 naval vessels came from 30 countries, including no less than nine aircraft carriers - HMS Queen Elizabeth II and HMS Invincible were joined by USS Enterprise and USS Abraham Lincoln, HMCS Canada, HMAS Australia, FS Charles de Gaulle, INS Vikrant and ITS Cavour - as well as HMS Vanguard and INS Arihant and the last gun cruiser left in the world, Peru's BAP Almirante Grau. NATO came out in force, with Spanish assault ship SPS Juan Carlos I leading the way of a fleet including warships from Portugal, Greece, Israel and Egypt, while French, Italian and Canadian units stayed with their carriers. Every Commonwealth member was represented - including new member Chile, who came with Nigerian frigate Aradu and South African supply ship Drakensberg with them. Dozens of civilian vessels and news helicopters took in the spectacle, showing it off around the world. Indeed, the Indians took home more than a little pride at seeing Britain's First Sea Lord, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Michael Boyce, returning salutes of Indian Navy members as he and her majesty inspected INS Vikrant and INS Arihant and their escorting fleet.
