Caribbean Security Conference Hailed a Success

The third Conference on Caribbean Security and Strategy, held at the Grand Lido Hotel in Negril, Westmoreland from June 2 to 6, has been hailed a success by facilitators and participants.
“I think we have exceeded the objectives. I would have been happy if all that we achieved was to allow persons from different organizations, different countries, to get together and create some common basis for operating. I think we have exceeded that, because we looked at the actual National Security Strategies that were implemented, and the participants came up with excellent ideas as to how we could make a few modifications to them, and also some ideas in moving forward,” Lieutenant Colonel Rocky Meade, Commanding Officer of the Engineer Regiment of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), told JIS News.
“So, I think that is very good and we have created a solid basis for moving forward,” he added.
Deputy Permanent Secretary from the Ministry of National Security in Trinidad and Tobago, Dextra Bascome, told JIS News that the conference was “timely,” as the whole Caribbean region is under threat from various sources.
“In fact, what was good about it is that you could see all five participating islands coming together, through 16 agencies, to work together. There was mention of inter-agency co-operation, inter-operability, and what we discovered is that we have a lot of the same problems,” she said.
“So, what we could do is probably pool our resources, pool our ideas, and come together in forums such as this in the future, to help ourselves out of the problems that we have,” Ms. Bascome added.
Meanwhile, Director of Rehabilitation in the Department of Correctional Services in Jamaica, Gile Campbell, argued that the conference was an excellent vehicle through which the issue of co-operation and collaboration between governments and agencies across the region was promoted.
The five-day conference was staged through the collaborative effort of the United States (US) Government, the US Southern Command, the US Naval War College, the Government of Jamaica and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), with some 40 participants from five countries across the Caribbean.
Presenters at the conference included: Deputy Chief of Staff at the JDF, Colonel Anthony Anderson; Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, Laurence McCabe; Lieutenant Colonel Meade; Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College, Dr. Derek Reveron, and Army Infantry Officer at the Naval War College, Lieutenant Colonel Brian Winski.
Addresses were given by Chief of Staff of the JDF, Major General Stewart Saunders; Commanding General, Joint Force Headquarters, District of Colombia, US, Major General David Wherley; and Chair of the Department of National Security Studies at the Naval War College, Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese.