Photo retrieved from geopoliticalmonitor.com
Meaningful gains in aspects of contemporary, high-profile processes of international cooperation and multilateralism have taken on a Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-related character.
CARICOM has a special focus on amplifying its members’ voices and advancing concerted attention to and action on their interests in international affairs, emphasizing the importance of [“enhanced co-ordination of Member States’ foreign and [foreign] economic policies.”](https://caricom.org/treaties/revised-treaty-of-chaguaramas-establishing-the-caricom-including-csme/)
Drawing on International Relations (IR)-related scholarly insights that “leadership requires aninstitutionalised context“ and that it manifests in institutional terms, not just structurally, I glimpse at five international-level instances where such small states have a sharper focus on leading from the front. I also showcase some interests driving their associated statecraft, for which international organizations (IOs) are hands down the difference makers. In analytically treating these states as more than just variables of system-level dynamics in hegemonic order making (of one kind or the other), whose claims downplay their diplomatic hand, we can uncover how CARICOM is leaving its mark on global leadership.