The United States in the Commonwealth Caribbean : an assessment of America's predominance in the region

The Caribbean has been variously and always arbitrarily defined. There are, however, three conceptions that are widely accepted by writers, commentators, and foreign policy specialists: the insular Caribbean, which includes the English-speaking islands in the Caribbean archipelago; the Caribbean archipelago which encompasses all the islands in the Caribbean Sea plus the mainland extensions of Guyana, Suriname, and Cayenne on the South American mainland, and Belize on the Central American mainland; and the Caribbean Basin, which consists of the countries of the Caribbean archipelago plus the littoral nations of Central and South America. 1 From the outset, then, it is necessary to establish a conception that will be adopted for this analysis. By the Caribbean I mean those twelve countries in the Caribbean archipelago that are commonly referred to as the English-speaking Caribbean, or the Caribbean Commonwealth countries:- Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago; the four Windward Islands of Dominica, St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines; the Leeward Islands of Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis; and Belize in Central America