Central Concepts to the study of International Relations in the Caribbean.

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The Caribbean has often been said to be one of the richest of laboratories for social scientists. It owes this reputation to a combination of the sheer intensity of its experience of so many of the forces that have made the modern era, on the one hand, and the extraordinary, subtle diversity of its many constituent states and societies, on the other hand. For students of development, the importance of the Caribbean is increased still further by the fact that it is unique in the developing world in belonging to two of the great North-South systems of the twentieth century – the American hemispheric system with the US as metropolis and Latin America and the Caribbean as periphery, and the European imperial system with Britain, France and the Netherlands, and now the European Union (EU), as metropolis and Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific as periphery. (Payne and Sutton, 2001)

Viability and Vulnerability- The Caribbean Region consists of twenty-eight comparatively small independent, dependent territories and sovereign states. Their small size, susceptibility to natural disasters and general ecological vulnerability make the Caribbean a special case for development. Small geographical size limits the quantum and diversity of natural resource endowments and confines the scope for economic diversification.

Relatively, the small size of states limits their capacity to absorb citizens into economic life that emigration of labour becomes a permanent feature of those societies. Small size leads to general problems for states. Baker nonetheless acknowledges that, “Scale can and does have serious consequences for many aspects of life in small countries, especially in terms of economic and political viability and vulnerability. Inher...

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4. WTO website. “Work on Special and Differential Provisions”. Retrieved October 26th, 2009

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/dev_special_differential_provisions_e.htm

5. Gerber, J.,(2008) International Economics. San Diego State University. Pearson (4th Edition)

6. Todaro,M., & Smith, S., (2009)Economic Development. Pearson Education Limited. US (tenth edition).

7. WTO website(2009, March 5th). “Work Programme on Small Economies”. Retrieved October 27th, 2009.

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/dev_wkprog_smalleco_e.htm

8. International Monetary Fund. (June 23, 2000) Offshore Financial Centers IMF Background Paper.

http://www.imf.org/external/np/mae/oshore/2000/eng/back.htm

9. General Council Meeting (July 28th, 2009). Retrieved October 27th, 2009

www.wto.org/english/news_e/news09..../summary_qc_july09_e.pdf

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