Fully two and a half years before its advent, the year 1992 is progressively assuming an aura which is simultaneously hopeful and threatening, the end of one era and the beginning of another. The attitude which any individual country, or any group of countries adopts towards 1992 will, of course, be largely dependent upon the perspectives from which the events scheduled to take place in 1992 are viewed by the particular country or countries. Therefore it is apposite, if not essential, for those of us in the Caribbean to understand fully the meaning and implications of 1992 and, armed with such understanding, to fashion appropriate responses to the challenges which 1992 will present throughout the rest of this century and into the next.