ABSTRACT
The Caribbean basin--Central America to Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and the West Indian island states that rim the eastern and northern Caribbean sea--is the principal focus of US political and security interest in the Western Hemisphere. The Caribbean basin represents an economic power base about the size of a Switzerland, a Belgium, or a Mexico; the gross regional product was approximately $125 billion in 1980. The island states of the Caribbean include some of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, as well as some of the better off. Of the nineteen independent states, Commonwealth countries, colonies, and territories, small size is the most salient common characteristic and the principal obstacle to growth and development. As with other countries in the hemisphere, economic development is the principal concern of the Caribbean basin countries and an important force behind some of the more dramatic political and economic policy experiments being undertaken in the region.
