Managing New Security Threats In The Caribbean

This book examines non-traditional forms of security and expands the notion of security to include non-state actors and non-human actors. With a wide-ranging look into some of the ‘new’ security threats facing state and non-state actors today, this book is designed to specifically offer new angles on tackling these threats in the Caribbean region. It explores issues relating to viruses, war and conflict, migration, geopolitics, climate change and terrorism through multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives on global (in-)securities. Each chapter clearly elucidates the connectedness of these non-traditional threats, drawing on a remarkable number of the most recent reports and scholarly works. Most importantly, there is a lack of Caribbean studies in the security themes that are studied. This book is a much-needed and timely addition to intellectual thought on Caribbean security in an increasingly fragmented world. It will be of great interest to students of international security studies, human security, global politics, and international relations.

Most people view of the Caribbean and its over 7,000 individual islands is it's a tropical paradise of blue seas, sandy beaches and palm trees and to some extent this is very true. What most tourist and visitors don't see or are prevented from seeing is the real situation in the Caribbean.The Caribbean has always been a haven for smugglers and pirates and still is today. The islands have always traded among themselves and many of what are class as drug trafficking routes today were just trade routes 100 years ago or more. Where contraband use to be rum and tobacco it has now been replaced by drugs, firearms and dirty money.

The security issues which have come into prominence since the September 11 terrorist attack in the USA provide both the starting point and the focus for this comprehensive survey of contemporary security issues in the Caribbean. This volume assesses the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attack on Caribbean states and examines the institutional and operational terrorism response capacity of security agencies in the region. However, understanding security challenge and change in the Caribbean context requires a broad-based multidimensional approach; terrorism for the small, open and vulnerable nation states of the Caribbean region is a real security issue but even more so, is a range of untraditional threats like crime, drug trafficking, territorial disputes, environmental degradation and the rapid spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. How these states adapt policies and practices to adjust to the new regional and global circumstances represent the challenge and the change.

Since the end of the Cold War, security concerns in the Caribbean have changed from containment of communism to transnational threats such as drugs, illegal migration and natural disasters. This text analyzes the situation and puts forward a framework for a cooperative regional security system.

A collection of essays representative of an assembly of diverse perspectives from policy leaders in the region, its intended use is to develop constructive policy that contributes to regional stability and prosperity.

As the 21st century approaches, the international community continues to grapple with the consequences of major shifts in the security environment. The world we now live in is a paradox: political integration and community fragmentation; expanding transnationalism and rising nationalism; unimaginable wealth and unspeakable poverty, high-tech militarizes and low-tech conflicts, decreasing military spending and expanding use of defense resources. In this complex environment, the United States is debating its global role and security priorities for the 21st century.

This comprehensive work on security in the English-speaking Caribbean, offers a wealth of information about the history, politics, economics and geography of the entire region. The author examines security problems in the region as a geopolitical unit, not on a selective case-study basis, as is usually done. He assesses Caribbean security within a theoretical framework where four factors are critical: perceptions of the political elites; capabilities of the states; the geopolitics of the area; and the ideological orientations of the parties in power. Political and economic issues are judged to be as relevant to security as military factors. The author identifies safeguards which countries in the region may take in the coming decade.

This publication is dedicated to the issues related to Social Justice in the Caribbean, and seeks to increase dialogue among practitioners, unions, labour activists, academics, policy-makers and other individuals from across the social sciences and humanities. It is purposely multi-disciplinary in orientation, intending to cover issues related to work, workers, labour, and related topics, as well as social, organizational and institutional aspects of work and industrial relations. It aims to set the tone for discourse on a wide range of issues related to the future of work and sustainable Caribbean development, Social Justice, industrial relations, governance systems, social protection, social dialogue, cooperatives and community empowerment, the future of education, migration and security, among others, nationally, and regionally. The publication will represent contemporary scholarly contributions from researchers presenting either original or innovative research that contribute to the theory, practice and public policy dimensions of work, migration, labour, industrial relations, and related issues.