Recent reports provide compelling evidence that the steep increase in criminal violence in the Greater Caribbean region is linked to broader developments in the hemisphere, and globally.

The problem has been receiving increased international attention over the past 20 years and especially since the decade of the 1990s. A series of inter-linked factors, loosely associated with the course of globalization and the end of the Cold War, appear to be at work.

First, global inequality has increased significantly since the early 1980s, both within and between nations. The debt crisis and structural adjustment programs have taken a heavy toll in human and social costs. Social safety nets have disintegrated in eastern and southern Europe and in the failed states in parts of Africa. Human security, in basic economic and social terms, has deteriorated.

The cities of the South --- and increasingly those of the North --- are crowded with desperate people, especially young males, willing to try desperate means to get their share of the economic pie.

Second, arms and ammunition are in plentiful supply in a huge underground trade: supplies have been augmented by the break-up of the Soviet system and the end of the wars of liberation in Africa and of the civil wars in Central America.

Third, globalization has facilitated the spread of transnational crime syndicates. Deregulation of financial systems and capital flows have enabled the transfer and channelling of funds into legitimate businesses. Trade liberalization has given rise to porous borders. Rising human insecurity has fuelled drug abuse. Prostitution and human smuggling have become integral parts of the global crime business.

And fourth, fiscal deficits have made it increasingly difficult for many governments to discharge their responsibilities in the area of security. As criminal resources have grown, state resources have shrunk.

The illicit drug industry alone generates, by conservative estimates, about $500 billion a year in revenues. This is far more than the combined GDP of 24 states in the Greater Caribbean region.

The world trade in illegal drugs is worth anywhere from $100 billion (UN figure) to $500 billion (US figure). Caricom and Central America together export $32 billion worth of goods and services.

But there are several factors that make the Greater Caribbean region especially vulnerable to the spin-offs of the international crime industry. One is its geographic location: the region sits astride transhipment routes for illegal drugs between the main producing and consuming centres. The map below says it all.

A second is its geographic and political fragmentation: there are 25 independent states and 12 affiliated territories. Together with this is the small size of the majority of its jurisdictions; 23 of which have less than 1 million people.

(To be continued)

Professor Norman Girvan is Secretary General 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.