The Strategic Positioning of the Caribbean Community in the Changing Global Environment

• Author: Denis Benn
• Pages: 14-23

THE STRATEGIC POSITIONING OF

THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY IN THE CHANGING

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

Denis Benn

Introduction

This paper offers some perspectives on

the Strategic Positioning of the Caribbean

Community in the Changing Global

Environment.

In order to do justice to the topic it is

necessary to adopt a theoretical approach that

will enable us to interpret both the dynamics

of the regional integration movement and the

emerging geopolitical and geostrategic forces

operating within the international system

which exercise a major inf‌luence on the region.

Over the years a number of different

theoretical approaches, notably, functionalism/

neo-functionalism (Haas (1958),1

Schmitter [1964]2 and Nye [1965]3), liberal

intergovernmentalism (Moravcsik [1993]4),

institutionalism (Armstrong and Bulmer

[1998]5), network analysis (Peterson [1995]6

and Bomberg [1998]7) and transactional

analysis (Deutsch [1957]8) have been applied

to the analysis of integration processes.

Similarly, a number of well-known theoretical

frameworks have been advanced as a basis for

interpreting international relations, the most

important of which are realism, liberalism,

rationalism, structuralism and various post-

positivist approaches, such as critical theory,

post-modernism and constructivism.

It should also be noted that Barnett

(2004),9 in his book, the Pentagon’s New

Map: War and Peace in the 21st Century,

has advanced a new paradigm for explaining

the dynamics of international relations by

2

dividing the world between a ‘functioning

core’, comprising the USA, Canada, Europe

and Japan, and a ‘non-integrating gap’ which

in fact encompasses the developing countries.

In this context, he analyses the changing ‘rule

sets’ which govern the relationship between the

two as well as within each group.

In addition, Huntington (1994)10

has posited that the current dynamics of

international relations can best be understood

in terms of a ‘clash of civilisations’ involving

mainly the Judaeo-Christian tradition and

Islam.

While all of these frameworks have some

merit and therefore should be borne in mind,

my preference in analysing the challenges

facing the Caribbean Community is to apply

the theory of ‘concentricity’ in which the

imperatives for action by the Community

are determined within a series of concentric

relations radiating from the CARICOM core

and encompassing, in a series of expanding

waves, the wider Caribbean, Latin America

and the Caribbean, the hemispheric system,

the global South (i.e. the developing countries)

and, ultimately, the international system as a

whole. The paper will therefore seek to identify

the strategic imperatives in each of these arenas

beginning with the CARICOM core.

In terms of the CARICOM core, while

individual national initiatives remain relevant,

given their small size and therefore sub-

optimal economic scale, increased regional

integration is a critical requirement for

optimising the development possibilities of the