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Abstract

Most Caribbean states have produced new political leadership that is significantly different from the last generation in a number of ways. Relying more on the projections of technical competence than on charisma and gratitude, these new leaders face volatile domestic situations in which they find themselves challenged by increasing drug problems, local political indifference, weak party organizations, and a world dramatically altered by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the precarious internal economic situation of the United States. The United States remains inordinately important as the major market for Caribbean products, although trade with the region represents only a small part of American foreign trade. The diversity of the various states makes unanimity in matters of foreign policy difficult among Caribbean leaders. Differences in scale will affect foreign policy concerns, although, on many major issues, Caribbean political leaders must work closely with the United States. The primary challenge will be to balance equitably their local interests with those of the larger state.

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References

1. Glenn 0. Phillips and Talbert O. Shaw , eds., The Caribbean Basin Initiative: Genuine or Deceptive? An Early Assessment (Baltimore, MD: Morgan State University Press, 1987).

2. Latin American and Caribbean trade consortia have some precedence. The Economic Commission for Latin America dates back to 1948; the Latin American Free Trade Association was established in 1961. The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) began operations in 1973; and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States started in 1981.

3. For the best analysis of the changes in Cuba, see Jorge Domínguez , Cuba: Order and Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978).

Robert Anderson , “The Party System: Change or Stagnation,” in Time for Decision: The United States and Puerto Rico, ed. Jorge Heine (Lanham, MD: North-South Publishing, 1983), pp. 3-26.

They are, however, included in Catherine A. Sunshine , The Caribbean: Survival, Struggle and Sovereignty (Washington, DC: EPICA, 1985), pp. 164-170.

Bonham Richardson , The Caribbean in the Wider World, 1492-1992: A Regional Geography (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

7. Jan S. Adams , A Foreign Policy in Transition: Moscow's Retreat from Central America and the Caribbean, 1985-1992 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992), pp. 163-178.

8. Peter Winn , Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), pp. 459-471.

9. Mark P. Sullivan , Caribbean-U.S. Relations: Issues for the Congress, CRS Issue Brief (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 1993).

10.

10. Quoted in ibid., p. 3.

11.

11. The Caribbean heads of state were P. J. Patterson of Jamaica, Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago, Erskine Sandiford of Barbados, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana, and Hubert Ingraham of the Bahamas.

12.

12. Sullivan , Caribbean-U.S. Relations, p. 3.

13.

13. Lenore M. Sek and Mark P. Sullivan , Caribbean Basin Countries: Implications of a North American Free Trade Agreement (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 1993), pp. 2-3.

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idem , Strike the Iron, 2 vols. (New York: Humanities Press, 1981).

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15. See Franklin W. Knight , “Regional Overview,” in Islands of the Commonwealth Caribbean: A Regional Study, ed. Sandra W. Meditz and Denis M. Hanratty (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1989), pp. 34-38.

16.

16. For the hopes of CARICOM, see Time for Action: The Report of the West Indian Commission (Barbados: West Indian Commission, 1992).

17.

17. An excellent discussion of the contemporary Caribbean may be found in Jorge Domínguez , Robert A. Pastor , and R. DeLisle Worrell , eds., Democracy in the Caribbean: Political, Economic and Social Perspectives (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).

18.

18. Overview of the Report of the West Indian Commission (Barbados: West Indian Commission, 1992), p. 6.

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idem , Panama Money in Barbados, 1900-1902 (Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 1985).

20.

Franklin W. Knight , “Jamaican Migrants and the Cuban Sugar Industry, 1900-1934,” in Between Slavery and Free Labor: The Spanish-Speaking Caribbean in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Manuel Moreno Fraginals , Frank Moya Pons , and Stanley L. Engerman (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985).

21.

21. Stinner, de Albuquerque , and Bryce-Laporte , eds., Return Migration and Remittances.

22.

Anderson, after looking at Jamaica, states that “there is little reason to believe that most manpower lost through out-migration would have added to net employment rather than unemployment.” Anderson , “Migration and Development in Jamaica,” p. 136.

23.

23. IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) (Apr.-May 1989), p. 3. Cuba is not currently a member of the Inter-American Development Bank and so is not included in its reports, but there is no reason to expect any better economic performance there. See Carmelo Mesa-Lago , “The Economy: Caution, Frugality, and Resilient Ideology,” in Cuba: Internal and International Affairs, ed. Jorge I. Domínguez (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1982), pp. 113-166.

24.

“Labor Force and Employment,” p. 88.

25.

Michele Johnson , “The Ultimate Sale: Domestic Service in Jamaica, 1920-1970” (Seminar paper, Johns Hopkins University, 1990).

26.

26. See the eloquent plea of the Jamaican Ambassador, Dr. Richard Bernal , “Caribbean Nations Need NAFTA, Too,” on the op-ed page of the Washington Times, 1 Oct. 1993.

The New Caribbean and the United States

Abstract

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