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The
Association of Caribbean States as an International
Organisation |
By: Watson R. Denis, PhD
April 26, 2007: There are more than 250 international
organisations (IO) in the world today. Emerging at the end
of the 19th century, and evolving slowly in the early 20th
century, IOs picked up cruising speed after the Second World
War. The outcome of this war showed that the world should no
longer be subjugated under the yoke of one super power, but
that on the contrary, co-operation and negotiation between
States were necessary for peace and the conduct of
international affairs. This is how the United Nations and
its specialized agencies as well as other international and
regional organisations were born.
IOs fall within the realm of international governance. On
the one hand, they allow a number of States to project their
political vision or national projects onto a geographical
stage much larger than their own. On the other, they allow
other States to face national challenges by pooling their
problems, either by harmonizing them so as to solve them
together, or by dividing them conscientiously, again in
order to arrive at a common solution. Finally, IOs allow
States to project themselves as protagonists for the purpose
of influencing, defining or governing issues previously
unresolved by the international community.
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Today, IOs represent in themselves a veritable political
system. They are present everywhere and intervene in every
area, from A to Z - international security, economic and
political relations, integration and co-operation, the
environment and human rights. In this sense, they are at the
same time a policy instrument of States, a chessboard a
plural space where an organisation’s international policy is
defined- and a political player using diplomacy in
international relations to bring about the fundamental
objectives and mandates set by the organisation. Whether it
is the Association of South-East Asian Nations, the African
Union, the Organization of American States, the European
Union or the ACS, they almost all respond to this role and
its characteristics.
Of this group, the ACS is the most recent. It was founded in
July 1994, in the context of globalization, with the basic
objective of intervening in the field of regional
co-operation. The ACS is an entity set up as a link between
different areas of the Greater Caribbean, that is, the
Caribbean islands, the Central American area and three
countries of Latin America whose coastlines are touched by
the Caribbean Sea. Apart from this geographical or maritime
factor, the ACS responds to a need to join geographical
areas in the Caribbean which have so far developed little
political or trade interaction among themselves. Hence the
concept of the Greater Caribbean arose. In light of this,
one of the founding objectives of the ACS is dialogue,
co-ordination and co-operation among the 25 Members, Member
States and Associate Members (involving also the countries
or territories with political relations with powers outside
the continent).
The ACS now acts in four priority areas: trade, sustainable
tourism, transport and natural disasters.. The Association
also has great interest in the protection and safeguard of
the Caribbean Sea as a patrimony of the peoples of the
region.
Because of its characteristics, the ACS is an organisation
for formulating programmes, in the sense that it prepares
projects and sets standards and procedures, thus playing a
role in the establishment of international regimes, but it
does not execute them.
The new UN resolution on the Caribbean Sea (December 2006)
is thus an illustration of how the ACS Secretariat, an
instrument of the Association and an organ functioning as a
player on the international scene, this time on the
chessboard of the United Nations, with the assistance of the
Caribbean Sea Commission, managed to negotiate and achieve
the passing of a resolution in favour of the Caribbean Sea
as a special area in the context of sustainable development.
Since then, the new resolution has become an international
policy instrument and governs all questions concerning the
protection of this sea.
It goes without saying that IOs, including the ACS, have
today found their full importance, because of their ability,
for example, to change the international regime and provide
new guidance to international policy. They are there to
generate and institutionally stabilize international
co-operation. This is a model of co-operation which is
moving closer and closer towards world governance.
The ACS in particular is very important. It has not only
succeeded in changing the international regime with regard
to the Caribbean Sea, it also facilitates the development of
regional co-operation in four (4) key areas in the greater
Caribbean. Politically, it allows every State, country or
territory in the region, regardless of its size, political
or economic weight, to have a real space on the
international chessboard where it can act to influence
international affairs in one way or another.
Dr Watson Denis is the Political Adviser at the Secretariat
of the Association of Caribbean States.
The views expressed are not necessarily the official views
of the ACS. Feedback can be sent to: mail@acs-aec.org
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