00:01Data show that armed conflicts are at their highest globally since World War II and once widely accepted tenets such
00:08as free trade are being blatantly disregarded. In this climate, the Caribbean is being advised to adopt an active non
00:16-alignment stance.
00:17Active non-alignment would allow Caribbean states to engage with the United States constructively wherever possible because it's still very
00:28much a big power. You can't ignore that. It's sliding down the hierarchy ladder but it's still very much a
00:35big power. And it will also allow us to work pragmatically with China whenever possible. It will deepen ties with
00:45Canada and the European Union.
00:47This says the global community is said to be in the midst of the formation of a new world order
00:53and the data supports the theory.
00:56We are witnessing a structural transformation. So today, material power is obviously shifting. The U.S. relative dominance is declining.
01:07China is on the rise.
01:09Others in the BRICS, for example, or India are asserting influence in a way that they had them before. The
01:18institutions that were created in 1945 are also being questioned.
01:24From the United Nations Security Council, to the World Trade Organization, to the World Health Organization, these are increasingly paralyzed
01:34and sometimes bypassed by the big powers that still exist today.
01:40Regional actors believe the Caribbean can position itself to play a part in the new order. But stress, unity is
01:48key.
01:48No Caribbean states can actually navigate this moment in time, this interregnum alone. Regardless of what the Prime Minister of
01:58this country might say, Trinidad cannot navigate the system on its own.
02:03Right? CARICOM must evolve from just being a coordinating mechanism to deeper structural integration if we're going to deal properly
02:15with this integration of this interregnum.
02:18And this would include things like joint climate financing initiatives, coordinating maritime security, shared cybersecurity frameworks, collective bargaining in multilateral
02:32arenas.
02:33On the security front, the CARICOM implementation agency for crime and security, CARICOM Impacts, is urging Caribbean states to align
02:43itself on the side of international law to insulate itself against external threats.
02:49Every time the international rule of law is treated as optional, the cost of sovereignty rises for small states.
02:58Because cohesion becomes cheaper, bargaining becomes more asymmetrical, and our policy space narrows, quietly, cumulatively, and then suddenly.
03:12This is also why we must understand the expanding role of economic tools in security.
03:20Sanction regimes, export controls, restrictions on dual-use technology, we all know the key one, financial blacklisting.
03:32Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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