The United States supports Caribbean nations as they transition economically and politically into the 21st century, U.S. Ambassador Roland Bullen told an audience in Macmillan 117 Monday night, kicking off Caribbean Heritage Week.
"A resonant commitment to democracy, the rule of law and the promotion of private sector-led, market-driven economies" is shared by the United States and English-speaking Caribbean countries, said Bullen, the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic.
Bullen, a Grenada native, is the former U.S. ambassador to Guyana and has served throughout the Caribbean in a 30-year foreign service career. His lecture, co-sponsored by the Third World Center and the Center for Latin American Studies, focused specifically on American relations with the Caribbean Community, a 15-member economic coalition.
Though Bullen said "the Caribbean and the United States have had a long and vitally beneficial relationship over many decades," he added that "the strategic importance of these countries to the U.S. ... has declined in recent years" with the rise of globalization and free trade.
Bullen said English-speaking Caribbean nations have "by and large ... maintained an enviable record of stability, electoral democracy and peaceful coexistence with their neighbors" since gaining independence from their "mother countries" in Europe.
But he cited abundant foreign markets for agriculture and the rising Caribbean drug trade as sources of strain on diplomatic relations.
"Drugs and the trade from drugs threaten the integrity and political stability of these proud and vulnerable democracies, while economic shifts erode the fragile foundations of prosperity they have built up," Bullen said. Responding to the drug trade has shifted spending from social programs to security needs, while high-interest loans have caused a rise in the national debt.
In light of the contemporary challenges, Bullen said the United States is "a convenient focus of regional frustrations" in the Caribbean.
In parts of the Caribbean, "globalization is viewed as a U.S.-imposed problem and not as an inevitable, technologically driven development," Bullen said. "Beyond the vocal criticism, there is deep-rooted suspicion of the United States," which has affected "an array of potentially beneficial proposals such as open skies, telecommunication reform ... and bilateral investment treaties," he added.
Bullen said Caribbean countries tend to blame the American demand for narcotics for increased drug cultivation and trafficking in their nations. He also said some believe U.S. deportation policies for foreign offenders are the reason for rising domestic crime rates.
These allegations lack "serious evidence," the ambassador added.
"Frankly, I think it's an excuse for not being more proactive in solving the problem of crime," he said.
But Bullen also gave examples of a "public relations failure" by the United States in the Caribbean, citing a controversy over the lucrative banana trade after a wave of Caribbean independence from Europe during the middle of the century.
Bullen said the United States has recently implemented a "more positive agenda for the region" and has almost doubled assistance to the Caribbean since 2001. The U.S. government has supported everything from World Cup cricket to recent natural disaster relief, he said.
"If we look at the extent of our countries' common interest, it is almost impossible to conceive of anything but a close, mutually beneficial and friendly relationship," Bullen said.
"The U.S. recognizes that our Caribbean friends and close neighbors are faced with the prospect of unsettling changes by the forces of globalization," Bullen said. "Today's challenges are not yesterday's. ... Recognition of the need for change and the local ownership of that process (is) fundamental" to reform, he added.
In a question-and-answer session following the lecture, Professor of Sociology Paget Henry, who introduced Bullen, criticized the United States for failing to acknowledge the history of Caribbean "democratic socialism" in its foreign policy.
"The idea that we have to downsize the state and make it conform to the liberal model when you have, during the period of British rule, the legitimacy of this intervention state" is a fundamental problem, Henry said. "The U.S. fails to recognize that the private sector in the Caribbean cannot lead - it has not led. All of the major transformation in the Caribbean took place when the States had the driver's seat," he added. "This is a phase America never went through ... and it must understand."
