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The CARICOM States and US Foreign Policy: The Danger of Central Americanization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

H. Michael Erisman
H. Michael Erisman*
Affiliation:
Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana
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Extract

Traditionally most North Americans look upon the English-speaking Caribbean primarily as a place for tourists to pursue their quest for the three S's: sun, sand and surf— a perspective which generates little, if any, concern for the region's political dynamics. Indeed, the prevailing attitude seems to be that these countries, known collectively as the CARICOM states, are not politically important because they are so small and thus not worth the time of US officials or political analysts. However, in the early 1980s this attitude began to change as the Reagan administration elevated the entire Caribbean Basin to the status of a major global trouble spot, on the grounds that the US had vital interests there which were being threatened by Leftist-inspired subversion and which required major economic/security initiatives in order to pacify the area. Although most of Washington's energies and resources were focussed on Central America, the English-speaking territories (e.g., Jamaica and Grenada) also came under close scrutiny.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 31 , Issue 3: Special Issue: The International Dynamics of the Commonwealth Caribbean , Fall 1989 , pp. 141 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1989

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