'CARICOM - 'Friends of All, Satellites of None' - Reconfiguring the Heterarchy-Hierarchy Continuum'

Abstract

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been pursuing both political and economic integration since its inception in 1973. While pursuing integration within the region, the entity has also been pursuing an extra-regional relationship with the United States of America.Three case studies are used to show the evolution of CARICOM's decision and political space vis-a-vis the United States of America. These are the Grenada crisis (1983); the Shiprider Agreements (1996-97); and the Haitian crisis (2004). CARICOM operates within a dynamic decision and political space: depending on the members and the situations, members act within a wide or narrow decision space and a hierarchical or heterarchical political space. When geo-political considerations were paramount, members acted within a hierarchical political space which maintained the core-periphery relationship of which the United States was the core. Now that the United States' resources are being diverted to other areas to address terrorism, inter alia, CARICOM countries need to, for a change, exercise consensus in their actions and make decisions that maximise geo-economic considerations.