Worrell’s Development Stabilization in Small Open Economies is highly recommended not only for Caribbeanists, but also those interested in challenges faced by small open economies, students, and policymakers—including those in multinational organizations.
Today, the impact of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and its ongoing military activities against Ukraine’s population and infrastructure to occupy the country is consistent with the relationship Latin America has had with Europe historically. The effects flowing from that interdependence have been significant and multifaceted against a backdrop of a region-making an effort to distance itself from them.
In Latin America, it is strategically important that the United States distinguish between principled left-oriented democratic regimes versus those which seek to manage the alarm of Washington and Western investors as they pursue a fundamentally anti-democratic, anti-market, anti-U.S. course. It is time for Washington to recognize that the Honduran regime of Xiomara Castro, Mel Zelaya, and their Libre movement, are on the latter path.
The rush to begin deep-sea mining is unjustified and dangerous. Many of the areas targeted for mining are virtually unexplored, and the consequences of mining are unknown and unpredictable.
Despite its novelty, the act did not plunge the country into crisis as some critics warned, nor did it mark a death knell for Ecuadorian democracy, as others argued. To the contrary, muerte cruzada acted as a constitutional release valve, helping dissipate popular discontent and providing a democratic exit for an unpopular president who was facing his second impeachment trial and third motion for impeachment in two years.
Despite a proliferation of targeted visa restrictions, the reality is that migration has continued. As the option of flights and other regular travel further north has been taken off the board, this has only pushed migrants to take more dangerous paths to the U.S. border, most infamously through the Darien Gap.
Climate change and the global energy transition place Latin America and the Caribbean at a crossroads: it can either take a leap forward to become a more prosperous and relevant region, or it can fail and see our human and economic development stagnate.
The region faces the ever-growing threat of climate change, persistent inequality, the destructive middle-income trap, growing disillusionment with democracy, the largest refugee crisis outside of a war zone, among numerous other challenges… identifying which challenges are the most pressing and challenging is a difficult task—but a necessary one if governments across the region are to address these threats.
With or without climate change, extreme weather events will exist and regrettably affect people in the Caribbean and worldwide. However, as global average temperatures warm, the Caribbean stands out as particularly vulnerable to the catastrophic, compounding effects of climate change in the form of extreme weather events.
Curaçao has to make it more attractive for people to have children by reducing the opportunity costs of getting married and raising kids.
