“SMALL Caribbean states, on their own cannot respond in an adequate and timely manner to the scale of death, damage and destruction caused by most natural disasters,” President David Granger has said.
He said the Region requires international cooperation to promote human safety. He was at the time delivering the keynote address at the Perry Awards 2017 on Thursday at the Perry Centre for Hemispheric Defence Studies. It was pointed out that the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has the equipment, the expertise and the experience needed to respond rapidly to natural disasters, and is most often, among the first responders to natural disasters.

SOUTHCOM must continue to work with regional organisations such as the Caribbean Emergency Disaster Management Agency (CEDEMA) to help the Caribbean build capacity to respond to disaster. “Our common interests in the (Caribbean) ‘Basin’ require that the Region become a zone of peace and a zone of development, rather than a zone of disaster. The ‘hurricane era’ has made security cooperation, rather than strategic confrontation, a necessity to protect the Region’s vital interests,” he said.
The President said it must be recognised that the stability of the Caribbean Basin is imperilled by environmental hazards and are the greatest threats to citizens’ quality of life.
“Security cooperation between the USA and the Caribbean has been pursued, principally, through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI). Security cooperation must be re-engineered to take into account the interests of the special environmental needs of small-island developing and low-lying coastal states,” he emphasised.

It was on this note that he called on the faculty and staff of the Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies to provide the intellectual leadership needed to promote a new era of security relations in the Caribbean Basin. “The Caribbean Basin is vulnerable to tropical storms which can be disruptive of states’ stability and security. Hurricanes gather strength and thrust from warm water. They originate in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of West Africa, and move westwards to the Caribbean,” he reminded those present.

“The USA, as part of its strategy to ensure the security and stability of its ‘fourth frontier’, has always paid attention to the need for security cooperation with the Caribbean. Interest in the former British West Indies, was evinced in the landmark ‘1940 Destroyers for Bases Agreement.’ There is need, now, to extend cooperation in environmental security,” he added. According to him, climate change has emerged as a major international threat, not only to the environment,but also to both human safety and state security.
“Disasters disrupt governance, damage property and infrastructure, cause death and lower citizens’ quality of life. Environmental hazards are threats to the national security of states, whether they are rich or poor, large or small, island or mainland,” he further pointed out.
Meanwhile, the recipients of the 2017 William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education are Dr. Marcos Pablo Moloeznik, Professor at the University of Guadalajara, and the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada of Bogota, Colombia and Mr. John “Jay” Cope, Founding Director of the Perry Center, who was presented with the 2017 William J. Perry Legacy Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education.
The Perry Award, named after former U.S. Secretary of Defense Dr. William J. Perry, is awarded annually to individuals and organisations in recognition of their significant educational contributions to the field of security and defence studies. Awardees were selected from amongst a competitive pool of nominations, showcasing their commitment to and achievements in education, knowledge-sharing, and research on hemispheric security.