ABSTRACT

The recent flurry of interest in the Caribbean by the United States (US) is both welcome and unsettling to most regional policy makers and Caribbeanists. From the perspective of the Caribbean, short-term US security and economic interests have had a most negative impact on governmental legitimacy, national unity, and, ultimately, systemic survival in the region. The prevailing view of the Caribbean is that of an archipelago of islands with the Guianas and Belize usually included as mainland appendages. This Caribbean has experienced a greater sense of cultural integration than the rim countries despite its varied Spanish, French, Dutch, and English colonization patterns. A United Nation's study suggests that all of the Commonwealth Caribbean territories, based on geographic size, population, and overall gross national product, may be considered microstates. Trade and exchange imbalances have become a fact of life in the microstate Caribbean, with the exception of oil-rich Trinidad, since the 1973-1974 surges in petroleum prices.