Strategy and Security in the Caribbean

This contribution to the debate on security in the Caribbean highlights the security problems of small states. The contributors analyze internal and external security issues, military, political, and economic influences, and security initiatives and policies from indigenous, regional, and extra-regional perspectives. They also present empirical case studies of four English-speaking nations.

The volume begins by introducing the dynamics influencing Caribbean security: leadership, history, geopolitics, and internal political violence. Part Two then presents four case studies: Barbados, Guyana, the Virgin Islands, and the Belize-Guatemala territorial dispute. Realist theory, conflict theory, political economy, and political psychology are among the theoretical frameworks represented in these essays. Focusing particularly on the English-speaking Caribbean, the authors examine the resources, institutions, economies, geopolitics, internal instability, militarization, and intervention shaping the security environment. This work is an important resource for scholars and policy analysts of military/security issues, the Caribbean/Latin America, and Third World development.

IVELAW L. GRIFFITH is Professor of Political Science at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He is author of The Quest for Security in the Caribbean (forthcoming) and has published in the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Caribbean Affairs, and elsewhere.