Dear Editor,

Caricom is now facing a moment of reckoning and there is an urgent need for rethinking. Whether we admit it or not, the outsourcing of Haiti’s stabilisation project to as far afield as Kenya impacts negatively on the global prestige of Caricom and lays bare the inter-territorial security vacuum that exists within the regional bloc.

It is clear that, at this time, Caricom does not have the capacity to collectively provide the number of security personnel needed to stabilise Haiti without jeopardising or compromising the security status of each contributing member state. This has very serious implications for regional security and Caricom’s international standing.

The time has come for Caricom, along with its strategic international partners like the US, Canada, France, and Great Britain to implement a regional rapid response force adequately staffed by well-trained personnel and properly financed and equipped with ready mobilisation capabilities to undertake emergencies in the region at short notice, such as that which is currently happening in Haiti.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 personnel is, in my mind, a good number to facilitate adequate deployment and rotation and address a multiplicity of emergencies occurring simultaneously within the region. Of course, this would call for clear and unambiguous provisions within the Caricom accord, giving such a force the right to intervene upon the occurrence of defined inter-territorial emergencies.

Combat will not necessarily be the endgame. There are other regional emergencies that often require such intervention. Also, the threat of force sometimes inspires successful mediation and stave off combat. There has been from time to time the obvious need for such a force in the Caribbean. Be it emergencies arising from calamitous natural disasters, like earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes that occur within the region and necessitate the mass mobilisation of military personnel; coups or violent political fallouts such as occurred in Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and is now happening and has happened often in Haiti; external threat to any member state such as what Guyana now faces from Venezuela. The region needs the help of each other in times of such exigencies.

This rapid response force should be operated in such a way that it is not impacted by day-to-day domestic security needs of individual member states. It should be a force that is available in adequate numbers for ready mobilisation, whenever and wherever within the bloc. It is very clear from the region’s current economic standing that for such a force to be effectively implemented there is need for strategic engagement with certain hemispheric powers and international partners who have vested geo-political interests in the region and its state of affairs. Caricom member states should provide of course the majority of personnel. However, there is the obvious need for costly security apparatus and equipment of all sorts for the effective and efficient operation of such a force. The US, Canada, France, and Great Britain can ably help in this regard.

The preservation of democracy and stable and sustainable civil governance in the region necessitate an institutional enforcement mechanism. Otherwise, anti-democratic norms will flourish and create instability and mayhem.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has in place a security apparatus that allows for a collective force of member states to intervene when democracy and stability are threatened within the bloc. This has worked with some amount of success and has provided an African solution to an African problem. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), too, has a rapid response force of personnel from different members of the alliance that can be quickly deployed wherever and whenever needed. It is highly trained in land, sea and air capabilities backed up by high level technological capacity. This is another example of, one for all and all for one, in times of crisis. Both ECOWAS’s security apparatus and NATO’s Rapid Response Force provide a model to guide the development of our own operation within Caricom. The present necessity provides the impetus for us to move urgently to create a Caricom solution for a Caricom problem while engaging meaningfully established international partners.

Haiti is close to being a failed state. The adverse news coming out of Haiti is a vociferous call to action. If we do not act now we will have more of the Haitian crisis and disorder in the near future.

Cedric Brown

Attorney-at-law

cbrownlawpractice@gmail.com.