Restoring Hegemony: the Complementarity Among the Security, Economic and Political Components of US Policy in the Caribbean Basin During the 1980s

Abstract

There is considerable consensus on the fact that US policy in the Caribbean Basin (i.e. in the Caribbean and Central America) under the Reagan administration was aimed at restoring American hegemony in its so-called backyard. Many US analysts seem to believe, however, that such hegemony is defined primarily by military supremacy and the ability of the North American state and capital to impose unilaterally their interests and views in the region.¹ Indeed, the high profile of the Reagan Doctrine, according to which the US government is willing to use force to contain the advance of Communism, led to this perception. But this view of hegemony is very narrow and sees force as the main means of exercising political domination.