CARIBBEAN WINDS: THREATS TO NATIONAL SECURITY.

• Author: Antoine, Denis G.
• Position: Caribbean regional security

For the governments of the small, English-speaking island nations of the Caribbean, the traditional concept of national security has less meaning in light of post-Cold War realities. These are countries set in the Caribbean Sea, with minimal defense forces, and no boundary disputes. For them, currents assessments of national security demonstrate clearly and forcefully that the threats they face "are nontraditional, multi-dimensional, and international in nature."

Through their representatives to OAS meetings and other international conferences, these nations have suggested that a new approach to national security is necessary if they are succesfully to meet the heightened threats and challenges of the post-Cold War era. In a statement made to the Fourth Conference of Ministers of Defense of the Americas in Manaus, Brazil, last October, Ambassador Michael I. King, delegate of Barbados, made the point that "if peace does not mean freedom from war, then security should not mean protection from military aggression. Redefining peace and stability too include life-enhancing qualities and conditions requires us to redefine security to include protection from influences that threaten these life-enhancing qualities."

"Arguably the most significant challenges confronting [the small island states of the Caribbean] at this time," Ambassador King continued, "are the process of globalization and the emergence of trade liberalization." The Caribbean governments have readily "accepted the reality of the new global economy, of which trade liberalization is a defining characteristic." Recognizing that the age of preferences and protection is coming to end, the small island states are committed to taking advantage of the opportunities that globalization offers and to making their economies more competitive. But, there remain pressing concerns and uncertainties.

The process of globalization has brought increased pressure on traditional areas of economic activity (bananas, sugar, rum), as well as not-so-traditional economic activity (garment manufacture). If national security in a small island like Grenada is essentially economic, trade wars regarding bananas can have a disabling effect on society as a whole, as they have on the many small farmers who do not know if they can sell their crop, and sell it at a price that will give them even a modest profit.

The hope once held out by the Caribbean Basin Initiative, which encouraged off-shore garment manufacturing...