The Caribbean

Abstract

The paper examines horizons of possibilities for charting a course for the Caribbean to a sustainable future through a focus on the multiplicity of connections in which people and institutions of the region are involved. These possibilities, it is argued, are forged out of global processes that began with colonialism. They are predicated on a reformulation of regional relations away from forms of Westphalian sovereignty and Euro-American global centers of power. They are present in regional institutional arrangements and organizations that transcend boundaries shaped by histories of colonialism. They derive from the region's histories of anti-colonial resistance that have imbued popular conscience. And they are contained in the global scale of "tricontinental" relations through which are circulated different forms of rejection of Euro-American domination. The paper examines their potential for transforming the Caribbean in ways that would maximize ecological sustainability, conditions of human sustenance, and regional autonomy.

Keywords

• imperialism
• neocolonialism
• tricontinentalism
• Westphalianism
• coloniality