Surviving Small Size States Regional Integration in Caribbean Ministates

Lewis, Patsy

ISBN 10: 9766401160 / ISBN 13: 9789766401160

Published by Univ of West Indies Pr, 2002

About this Item

240 pages. 8.75x6.00x0.75 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-9766401160

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Surviving Small Size States Regional Integration in Caribbean Ministates
• Publisher: Univ of West Indies Pr
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9766401160
• ISBN 13: 9789766401160
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.39 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

In 1987 St. Vincent's Prime Minister James Mitchell called on his fellow Prime Ministers in the Eastern Caribbean to merge their separate countries into a single state. He argued that individually they had exhausted the possibilities of separate independence and they could only pursue regional and international development and indeed economic survival by pooling their scarce resources to combat common problems. By the end of the year all the Leeward Islands rejected the initiative although it remained very much alive among the governments of the Windward chain, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and the Commonwealth of Dominica. During the next eight years, efforts of the Windward Islands to merge were debated but the initiative for unification ultimately died. Through extensive interviews and analyses of primary documents, Lewis paints a compelling picture of island and regional jealousies and conflicting economic priorities, which prevented the Windward and Leeward Islands from cooperating and which ultimately destroyed the movement for political unification in the Windwards.

About the Author

Patsy Lewis is a Professor at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Her research focuses on the development challenges of small states, which she has approached from a variety of research perspectives. Much of her writing has focused on the regional integration processes of small Caribbean states, specifically the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), assessing the utility of regional organisations as a mechanism for shoring up the sovereignty of their members and their viability in a changed global context.