ABSTRACT
Revolutionary coups in small island states are rare inviting comparison between those few that occur. Two that were contemporaneous were René's in Seychelles and that of Maurice Bishop in Grenada. Grenada, like Seychelles, was a former British colony and a member of the Commonwealth with a slightly larger population. Its strategic circumstances close to the United States and Cuba were markedly different to Seychelles. The Grenada intervention points to the limited challenge to Western or regional interests that René's rule and foreign policy occasioned. While some in the West perceived a parallel between Seychelles and Grenada in terms of the two regimes advancing Soviet strategic interests, the two had little common impact. René instead pursued a posturing foreign policy barely connected to Seychelles’ interests and insufficiently consequential to trouble the interests of the great powers. Independence – and René's seizure of power – had brought a quotient of diplomatic attention to Seychelles.
