The election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States in November 1980 opened a new chapter in international relations; U.S. foreign policy shifted from an alliance-based, consensual approach to one based on a more overt use of its immense economic and, above all, military power. This policy entailed some stark choices for the U.S.A.’s allies and neighbours and, above all, for the small countries of Central America and the Caribbean. This revealing book tells the story of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), through which the new assertion of U.S. hegemony in the region was expressed. The CBI entitled “friendly” countries of the region (i.e., excluding Cuba, pre-invasion Grenada and Nicaragua) to military and economic aid plus incentives, modelled on the so-called “Puerto Rican miracle,” so as to reorient their trade towards the U.S.A. The authors carefully compare the claims made for the CBI with its underlying political objectives and examine its actual impact on regional development through detailed case studies of the Eastern Caribbean and Trinidad. Also examined are the impact of the CBI on Caribbean regional integration and the responses of Canada and Britain, the two other major countries with long-standing political and economic interests in the Caribbean. What emerges from this investigation is the way the CBI reflects the U.S.A.’s historic quest for regional dominance, rather than a new era in Caribbean development.

The Caribbean Basin: An International History provides a study of the entire Caribbean region, including Central America and the Caribbean coast of northern South America. It also offers analysis of: * the role of international intervention * the complex interaction among major world powers in the area * conflicts over colonial possessions and trade routes * Soviet-American confrontation in the Cold War years. Integrating the recent political, social and economic history of the Caribbean with its miltary and diplomatic past, this book charts the region's emergence from colonialism during the course of the twentieth century.

This study examines some operational military issues involving the Caribbean Basin, and it reflects the broader concern that answers to operational military questions should depend heavily on answers to more fundamental questions about why and how the United States should be interested in this complex, unstable region. Based on an examination of current trends as well as historical experience since promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine, the study advances a conceptual framework that identifies underlying geostrategic principles for guiding U.S. policy in the Basin. The study then proposes specific measures for developing an integrated political, economic, and military strategy that would advance U.S. interests and meet the interests of Basin neighbors.