ACS Secretary General, Rodolfo Sabonge, was honored to attend the launch of the book The Caribbean on the Edge, written by Professor Winston Dookeran, which took place at The College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago.

Winston Dookeran is currently Professor of Practice at the UWI. Prior to this, he held visiting positions at the University  of Toronto, Harvard University and United Nations University in Helsinki. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics, London University, and the University of Manitoba, where he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree for distinguished public service. He has authored/ edited several books on the Caribbean. He was also the Governor of the Central Bank and later the Minister of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Caribbean on Edge emphasizes the important role that diplomacy plays in the development of the Caribbean region. Professor Dookeran explained: “Capable states with good leadership who embrace reforms become stronger and more resilient, while those with weak state capacity- political and economic- will be in trouble and set for stagnation- old paradigms are looking tired – global institutions in in flux and the changing geopolitics is opening up strategic shifts in areas of diplomacy, particularly for small states”.

At the event the Secretary General was invited to speak about the book. Sabonge commented:  “When I was designated Secretary General, the first thing I did was a Strategic Diagnosis, in which I recognized many of the dilemmas mentioned in Prof. Dookeran’ s book.  In the first meeting I held with our Executive Board, I proposed to do a Strategic Planning Exercise, to assess the New World Order, the new realities, and redefine the Association’s Vision and Mission, to satisfy the best interests of its Members”. 

Secretary General Sabonge encourage us to read The Caribbean on the Edge because it allows us to see through a small window his appreciation of the multiple facets of the object of his lifelong study, the Caribbean, a beautiful, fragile but promising region, with a tormented soul, anguished by an unjust past and full of inequalities that make it difficult to think of a prosperous future.

To read the Secretary General Sabonge and professor Dookeran full remarks, use this link: https://bit.ly/3MkoLm3