SECURITY COOPERATION IN THE CARIBBEAN: AN EXAMINATION OF EMERGING SECURITY COOPERATION INITIATIVES IN COMBATING REGIONAL THREATS OF MUTUAL CONCERN

Abstract

The Caribbean region faces a wide range of transnational criminal threats, especially narcotic trafficking. Countries in throughout the region agree that multilateral maritime security cooperation is essential to overcome these threats. In fact, they have created a variety of regional institutions to promote such cooperation. However, this cooperation has been insufficient to overcome the threats. By contrast, cooperation off the Pacific coast of Central America appears to have been much more successful in countering similar threats. This thesis conducts a comparative case study to determine whether there are lessons the Caribbean countries can learn from cooperation in the Eastern Pacific. It finds that the main difference between the two regions is the presence or absence of a sustained multilateral operation to organize and conduct interdiction operations. In the Eastern Pacific, countries have coordinated their efforts through Operation MARTILLO for two decades, but in the Caribbean similar efforts mainly have been conducted on an ad hoc basis. As a result, Caribbean countries lack the institutions that enable them to share the resources and information that are required to interdict narcotics traffickers. This finding suggests that maritime security cooperation in the Caribbean could be enhanced by establishing a formal multinational operation along the lines of Operation MARTILLO.