Raw Power and Adaptation: Recalibrating Diplomatic Contours Across the South Atlantic –West Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean

In 2019 - well before the onslaught of COVID-19 and the wars in Europe and the Middle East - the central thesis of a policy paper by this author, analyzing the relationship between Africa and the Caribbean, characterized it as one of missed opportunity due to the lack of consistent, meaningful engagement between the two regions - despite the relationship’s special significance given their shared history. Underinvested: The Caribbean African Relationship (PCNS 2019) chronicled the links between Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, beginning with the 400-year history of the triangular slave trade, followed by a period of intense political activity during which the African diaspora established the Pan-African Movement (PAM) in 1958 as a potent force in the struggle against racism and colonialism. PAM supported the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa and racial segregation in Rhodesia, becoming a vital cog in the civil rights movement in the United States (U.S.).