Abstract
In the two decades and more since Jamaica acceded to independence to be followed, thereafter, in quick succession by the other English-speaking states defined as the English-speaking Caribbean or the Commonwealth Caribbean, sometimes referred to as ’the West Indies’, these states, individually and as a group, have achieved a remarkable visibility in terms of the roles which they have played at the regional and international levels, and in their responses to the constraints and opportunities which they have encountered in their external environment. However, it is not easy at this stage of research in the region or perhaps even useful, as is contended later in this chapter, to catalogue in some detail the matters which evoked these roles or which stimulated such responses. This study, it should be said at the beginning, is in the circumstances essentially impressionistic.
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Notes
Julius Gould and William L. Kolb (eds), A Dictionary of the Social Sciences (London: Tavistock, 1964) p. 357.
‘Milieu’ defined to include ‘all phenomena to which the environed unit’s activities may be related’, including such matters as cultural values and strategic concepts. Following Harold and Margaret Sprout, ‘Environmental Factors in the Study of International Politics’, in James N. Rosemau (ed.), International Politics and Foreign Policy, (New York: Free Press,1969) p. 43.
Michael Manley, ‘Grenada in the Context of History’, Caribbean Review vol. XII (Fall 1983) no. 4 (Florida International University, Miami) p. 7.
Donald E. Nuechterlein, ‘National Interests and Foreign Policy: A conceptual framework for analysis and decision-making’, British Journal of International Studies, vol. 2(1976) p. 246–66.
Ocho Rios Declaration, November 1982, CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown (1983) p. 12.
The Preamble and Article 17 of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown (1982) pp. 2 and 12.
The ACP Group of Countries was founded at a meeting in Georgetown, Guyana in June 1975, which adopted the Georgetown Agreement on the Organisation of the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacic States, see A New International Economic Order, Selected Documents 1945–1975, vol. 11, (UNITAR, New York) p. 679.
Articles 7 and 8 of the Treaty of Basseterre, published by OECS Secretariat, Castries, Saint Lucia, pp. 7 and 8.
The Prime Minister of Dominica, as reported in Caribbean Contact, July 1986, p. 6.
William Demas, in ‘Foreword’ to Richard Millett and W. Marvin Will (eds), The Restless Caribbean, Changing Patterns of International Relations (New York: Praeger, 1979) p. x.
Anthony T. Bryan, ‘The Islands and the Littoral: New Relationships’, in Millett and Will (eds), The Restless Caribbean, pp. 234–47.
See D. O. Mills and V. A. Lewis, Caribbean/Latin American Relations, ECLAC Subregional Office in Port-of-Spain, CEPAL/CARIB 82/16.
Proposal made in a remarkable speech entitled ‘The Caribbean Basin — A New Civilisation’ by the President of the Republic of Colombia, Dr Belisario Betancur to Thirteenth Board of Governors’ Meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank in Cartagena, 1983.
See Dr Eric Williams, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, address entitled ‘The Threat to the Caribbean Community’, in Forged from the Love of Liberty, selected speeches, compiled by Dr. Paul K. Sutton (Port-of-Spain: Longman Caribbean, 1981).
SELA Decision No. 91, Solidarity with Grenada in the Face of Acts of Economic Aggression, 1 April 1981.
See Williams, ‘Threat to the Caribbean Community’ and Kaldone G. Nweihed, ‘EZ (Uneasy) Delimitation in the Semienclosed Caribbean Sea: Recent Agreements between Venezuela and her Neighbours’, Ocean Development and International Law Journal, vol. 8 (1980), no. 1, Crane, Russak and Co., pp. 1–33.
The Nassau Understanding, declaration of CARICOM heads of government on Structural Adjustment and Closer Integration for Accelerated Development in the Caribbean Community, Nassau, The Bahamas (July 1984), p. 6.
At the Conference on International Relations of the Contemporary Caribbean, Puerto Rico, 1983; see note 20.
See discussion on ‘Zones of Influence’ by Modesto Seara Vasquez in The Year Book of World Affairs (London: Stevens, 1973) pp. 301–15.
Xabier Gorostiaga, ‘Towards Alternative Policies for the Region’, in George Irvin and Xabier Gorostiaga (eds), Towards an Alternative for Central America and the Caribbean (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1985) p. 16.
Edward Gonzalez, ′US Strategic Interests in the Caribbean Basin, paper prepared for the Conference ‘International Relations of the Contemporary Caribbean’, sponsored by the Caribbean Institute and Study Center for Latin American (CISCLA) of Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, held in Puerto Rico, April 1983, p. 10.
Maurice Bishop, at a mass rally to mark the first anniversary of the Grenada Revolution, in keeping with this belief, stated: ‘Our third principle is that the principle of ideological pluralism must be respected in practice. Every single country in the world, including racist apartheid South Africa, will speak in theory of accepting the principle of ideological pluralism. But theory is not enough; we want to see in practice that the people of this region are in fact allowed to build their own processes in their own way, free from outside interference and free from all forms of threats or attempts to force them to build a process that somebody else likes. This principle today must be recognised and practised. It is a fundamental principle that reflects the reality of today’s Caribbean’. ‘Forward Ever’, speech at Mass Rally to mark first anniversary of the Revolution in Maurice Bishop Speaks (New York, Pathfinder Press, 1983) p. 90.
Denis Benn, ‘The Commonwealth Caribbean and the New International Economic Order’, in Anthony Payne and Paul Sutton (eds), Dependency under Challenge (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984) pp. 259–80.
John Gaffar La Guerre, in his introduction to ‘Ideology’ and in his article ‘Socialism in Trinidad and Tobago’, Caribbean Issues, vol. IV, (August 1978) no. 2, UWI Extra-Mural Studies Unit, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, pp. 16–29.
Selwyn Ryan, in ‘Ideology’, pp. 30–52.
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© 1990 Anthony T. Bryan, J. Edward Greene and Timothy M. Shaw
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Searwar, L. (1990). Dominant Issues in the Role and Responses of Caribbean Small States. In: Bryan, A.T., Greene, J.E., Shaw, T.M. (eds) Peace, Development and Security in the Caribbean. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10244-0_1
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