Introduction

ABSTRACT

The introduction sets the contextual framework for understanding the relevance of global security, its threats and concerns for the Caribbean. Unconventional security challenges commonly classified as "low politics” or "soft” issues are being recognized as "hard security” challenges in the twenty-first century. In fact, many of the supposed "new” threats addressed are old/long-standing diseases, migration and refugees, human trafficking and crime, but deeply altered by globalization. Globalization increases the borderlessness of international relations, thereby redesigning and changing security issues in new and unanticipated ways. Compounding this situation is the recent COVID-19 pandemic which has been extremely disruptive within the global system. With dwindling support by the West towards non-Western countries and increasing insecurities, it becomes critical for the Caribbean region to advance its own path cognizant of its peculiarities. As such, the region must become proactive and seek ways of tackling these ʼnew' security threats or imminent ones. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.