The Eastern Caribbean in the 1990s: New Security Challenges

Abstract

In the post Cold War era, there has been widespread recognition of the need to redefine security and to reassess the principal sources of threat for the international community, states and individuals. The discussion on new sources of insecurity in fact started some 10-15 years earlier, but it has been intensified since the collapse of the bipolar framework of international relations. Within this debate, at an academic level such questions are examined as the relative merits of global, as opposed to international security, and the contradictions to be found in these concepts. Likewise, some writers question the suitability and the capacity of the contemporary state as a vehicle to meet the security needs of individuals or groups. They all agree on the need for a more holistic view of security, which takes into account many non-military sources of threat. At a more practical level, both countries and regions are re-formulating their security agendas in response to changed strategic conditions and new threat scenarios. In this article, we propose to survey the security issues facing the smallest and, arguably, the most vulnerable national units within the Western Hemisphere. We shall be revisiting the theme of security in the Eastern Caribbean, with special reference to the territories of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Our discussion is informed by the view that the most challenging security problems, with far-reaching international or regional implications, often erupt in the world's smartest and most insignificant societies - witness Liberia, Rwanda, Cyprus or Bosnia on the international level,