Featuring visiting professor Dr. Nand Bardouille: Overcoming "small size" in the Caribbean. The March 2018 Island Studies Lecture will take place on Tuesday, March 20, at 7 pm in the SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge on the UPEI campus and will feature Dr. Nand C. Bardouille speaking about the important role of regional integration in positioning Caribbean island states to overcome the disadvantages associated with “small size.” “Either we integrate or we perish…” For forty-plus years, this famous aphorism has given impetus to a grouping of mainly small island states in the Caribbean Basin that is endeavouring to advance regional integration. This lecture addresses the question: What role does the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which is one of the oldest regional integration projects in the developing world, play in positioning its members to overcome their “small size” in the international system? CARICOM is a grouping of fifteen member states and five associate members, which span the archipelagic state of The Bahamas in the northern part of the Caribbean Basin to the low-lying coastal states of Suriname and Guyana in South America. Dr. Bardouille will call attention to the vitally important role of collaborative regional governance arrangements in undergirding the viability of Caribbean island states. He will focus on how CARICOM enables co-ordinated regional responses to constraints/vulnerabilities associated with “small size” and the achievement of policy success for its members that face “existential threats,” such as climate change and transnational crime. Dr. Bardouille will trace the key milestones/achievements of and the challenges that confront CARICOM and will reflect on CARICOM’s prospects. Dr. Nand C. Bardouille, a national of Dominica, is currently a visiting professor in the Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) program at UPEI. Admission to the lecture is free and everyone is welcome to attend. Watch for another lecture about islands – near and far – April 17. For more information, please contact Laurie at iis@upei.ca or (902) 894-2881.