The Caribbean, however defined – islands, basin and/or diasporas – is in flux, reflective of interrelated pressures of ecology, economy and security. This slim volume concentrates on the middle factor, namely on regional and global economy, with minimal attention to the other themes, which limits its utility. As its title suggests, no island is an island in the new century, but their vulnerability is a function of ecology and security as well as the economy.

Whilst slight – six chapters and nine contributors in 140 pages, and without an index – this collection addresses many of the central issues arising from globalisation: foreign investment, services including sustainable tourism, supply-chains, telecommunications and so forth. It includes some leading analysts from within as well as outside the region, such as Anthony Bryan and Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, along with an ex-central banker and former university lecturer, Winston Dookeran, who has metamorphosed into the leader of Trinidad's newest political party – Congress of the People. The Chatham House report also includes some 18 tables and figures (which are not listed at the front) and seven pages of appendices on regional tourism data.

2008 is the year of Sir Arthur Lewis at the University of the West Indies and 2009 is the year of the Summits – on the Americas, and the Commonwealth – in Trinidad. This volume constitutes a useful backgrounder to current discourses and concerns. It opens in pessimistic mood, with David Jessop cautioning that the region could regress from ‘developmental’ to ‘fragile’ states, raising the prospect of the ‘Africanization’ of the Caribbean as well as the Pacific. The second chapter is somewhat more optimistic, arguing that Caribbean agriculture could come to fill emerging niches for organic, fair trade products, including supplies for a more discerning tourist sector. This is treated in the third chapter by Tony Bryan, who calls for sustainable ‘partnerships among government, the private sector & communities’ (p. 54). This contribution is the longest (27 pages plus 7 pages of data) and in many ways the most original in the compilation as it focuses on tourism's sustainability given novel features like cruise ships, sex tourism, cultural industries, global sports like Cricket World Cup and the imperative of IT connectivity.

Trevor Carmichael develops the contrast between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Caribbean – ten comparative business regimes in the Caribbean along with Bermuda, Mauritius and the Seychelles – in his focus on evolving financial services: from traditional offshore banking to captive insurance, mutual funds, stock exchanges and internet gambling, albeit under the watchful eye of the OECD Financial Action Task Force. The penultimate chapter on the continuing revolution in telecommunications likewise contrasts a handful of regulatory regimes but for the interrelated telecommunications sector, although it fails to treat the current hyper-competitiveness between Canadian (Flow) and Irish (Digicel) companies in the post-imperial, Cable and Wireless era. The concluding chapter is by ex-Governor or the Central Bank-turned-party leader, Dr Dookeran, which includes a case study of the adaptability of the own economy of his own country, Trinidad and Tobago. As does his party, Congress of the People (COP), Winston Dookeran calls for a competitive, ‘proactive, macroeconomic policy’ (p. 122): ‘developmental’ rather than protectionist policies which transcend the vulnerability of the Small Island Developing States and advance resilience of ‘emerging (island) economies’.

Regrettably, this slight overview overlooks some salient factors located in ecology and security: from climate change to gangs and guns. It ignores the broader Caribbean including Belize, Guyana and Suriname, along with the several anglophone as well as Dutch- or French-speaking overseas territories, let alone the ubiquitous diasporas in and remittances from North America and Europe. It also fails to consider the impacts of the rapidly growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) for the foreseeable future.

For anyone seeking to supplement this hors d'oeuvre, I'd recommend the Cropper Foundation Caribbean Sea Ecosystem Assessment (CARSEA) (2007) on the regional environment, Norman Girvan on Cooperation in the Greater Caribbean (2006), Ivelaw Griffith on Caribbean Security in the Age of Terror (2004), and Anthony Payne and Paul Sutton on ‘Repositioning the Caribbean within Globalization’ (2007) from CIGI.