Introduction

• Author: Ambassador Cedric Joseph
• Pages: 9-35

ix

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

One feature of this post-Cold War period is that the dissolution of the

Soviet Empire has released a new wave of nationalism and particularist

sentiment that had been previously suppressed. It is evident not only in the

Balkans where its intensity has been the most trenchant but also in other

areas of the global community. The change, which seems to be still unfolding,

has been critical to the existing system of nation states in that conflicts,

armed and otherwise, take place less between states than within states or the

community of member states. Change has fed on the existing disparities,

inequalities and the widening gulf within societies and on renewed aspirations

to confront the status quo. In association with the structural transformation

in the global trading regimes, inspired by like projections and dominance of

particular interests, a disruptive period has been taking form that will demand

the closest attention from our small societies.

Change has been constant in Caribbean society; for it has not differed

elsewhere. Transition connotes change; and change, even when things appear

to remain the same, foments conflict. And conflict is rarely far off in the

horizon. In this first decade of the new century, the Caribbean Community is

obliged to look as seriously and soberly to its future as it has done when it

took steps to consolidate further the integration movement.

As the Community secures a single market and economy, it has to grapple

with the erosion, really the beginning of the end, of the preferential

arrangements that had their roots in the colonial connection. It has to continue

to strive imaginatively for a future for its “sensitive” and pivotal banana

exports. And in the case of the historic ties to sugar, some members have

already taken the bold decision to abandon future production; a few, the

xINTERVENTION, BORDER AND MARITIME ISSUES IN CARICOM

even more daring venture to continue production in a highly uneven and

competitive market.

Moreover, while the region negotiates a new Economic Partnership

Agreement with Europe, it has to cope with an expanded Europe, the eastern

half of which, apart from being somewhat disdainful of the survivals of

imperial trading, is a major competitor for investments and aid programmes.

Of the identifying features of the period, of signal concern to the region

should be the incidence of intra-state conflict. As CARICOM society advances

beyond the first generation of political independence, the contest for political

power in small electorates where a paucity of votes can confine a grouping

to opposition, provides the environment for internal disruption and adverse

impact on the Community at large. In the multiethnic societies, the realities

of exclusion contest vigorously the declarations about inclusion. When joined

with other sources of conflict, the ability of member states to maintain peace,

stability and security in their respective territory, stretches the resilience of

the entire Community to the limit.

This collection of papers, therefore, deals with a set of issues relating to

conflicts which have emerged from domestic political crises and from the

process of delimiting land and maritime borders; both Community and

neighbouring states being involved. The conflicts between member states

over land or maritime borders are especially dangerous to existing cordial

bilateral relations, and to the Community generally, in their accentuation of

the interests of individual states. The conflicts over the land borders have

their roots in the colonial inheritance and were passed on unresolved to the

independent states. Other conflicts have inhered in the small political

framework, some from multiethnic structures that are also the result of colonial

policy, where a fractional difference in electoral support can confine a group,

sometimes an ethnic grouping, to the opposition for any length of time.

Those conflicts relating to the Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) are of recent

vintage.

When the issues implode into conflict they have a potential to be disruptive

and have taxed the energies and expertise of the political leadership in the

search for resolution. Molding and consolidating units into a single integrated

space may not take place without discord. Striking a harmonious balance

with the self-interests of individual states, therefore, becomes a supreme effort

that takes time. Yet, it has to be done if the Community is to progress. The

European Union is being constructed against a turbulent history of dynastic

rivalries, large-scale armed hostilities among some of its member states,