Over the years, the Commonwealth has played an important role as advocate for small states' issues and contributed to greater international awareness of the particular vulnerabilities and special needs of these countries. In this regard, a seminal contribution was the 1985 Commonwealth report, Vulnerability: Small States in the Global Society. This report raised the political profile of small states, issues in international fora. The international context faced by these countries has changed dramatically since the Cold War ended. At the second meeting of the Ministerial Group on Small States held in Auckland in 1995, Ministers recognised this and concluded that recent international developments pointed to the need for small states, vulnerability to be analysed in all its dimensions to cover political, economic, social and environmental concerns.