Volume 36 No.3

An ‘Argonauts’ Strategy to Reduce Caribbean Economic Vulnerability*

Pages:  1-15Author(s):  Jay R. Mandle

In the past, Caribbean nations have attempted to offset their vulnerability by negotiating Special and Differential Treatment for their products and by advancing the process of regional integration.  Neither is likely to be successful in the future.  An alternative way to reduce vulnerability would be for the region to become more technologically advanced.  This paper advances a strategy to encourage well-educated members of the Caribbean diaspora to return home to help the region to become more technologically progressive.

Pages: 1-15. - *Revised Version of Paper Prepared for 1st International Conference on Governance for Sustainable Development of Caribbean Small Island Developing States, University of Netherlands Antilles, 3 – 7 March, 2011.

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Credit Growth and the External Current Account in Barbados

Pages:  16-39Author(s):  Daniel O. Boamah, Mahalia Jackman and Nlandu Mamingi

Using the bounds testing approach to cointegration, this paper examines empirically the relationship between domestic credit and external account developments in Barbados in the period 1993-2007 with quarterly observations.  A simple model that links the current account balance to domestic credit, along with a number of standard control variables is utilised.  The results suggest that domestic credit has a significant negative impact on the external current account, in both the short and long run situations, giving credence to the hypothesis that balance of payment developments in Barbados may be considered primarily a monetary phenomenon.  As such, controlling aggregate demand measures to reduce excessive credit creation remains an important strategy to ensure stability in the country’s balance of payments accounts over the short to medium term.

Keywords:  current account, credit growth, bounds testing, cointegration

The Difference between the Constabulary Force and the Military: An Analysis of the Differing Roles and Functions in the Context of the Current Security Environment in the Caribbean (The Case of Jamaica)

Pages:  40-71Author(s):  Hilton McDavid, Anthony Clayton and Noel Cowell

This paper analyses the separate roles and functions of the police and the military in the context of the current security environment in the Caribbean, which now includes such diverse factors as trans-national organised crime, corruption, links between politics and crime, natural disasters, oil dependency, high levels of public debt and the chronic marginalisation of large sectors of the population. Some have argued that the Caribbean is unlikely to be invaded, and that the military can therefore be merged into the police as a cost-saving measure. This paper argues, by contrast, that the rapidly-evolving challenges require that the roles, functions and training of the police and the military be kept separate and distinct, and that the policy community needs to understand why the purpose and architecture of the training has to be appropriate for the different missions of the respective organisations.  This argument is supported by a model of discipline which defines the different organisational and individual roles and functions. It is further argued that it is essential that the police forces of the Caribbean continue to move further from their former quasi-military roles, functions and attitudes, and become fully modern police services. The paper accepts that there will continue to be a need for specialist units in the police services that will have paramilitary roles and functions, but concludes that these specialist units should not define the normal role and function of mainstream policing.

Keywords:  Constabulary, military, Caribbean, criminal gangs, national security

Book Review: US-Grenada Relations: Revolution and Intervention in the Backyard

Pages:  72-77Author(s):  Gary Williams

This book provides a fresh look at the Grenada revolution, its implosion and the US invasion, with the benefits of almost thirty years hindsight.

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