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Caribbean Islands National Security
Antiguan and Barbudan security forces consisted of the Royal
Antigua and Barbuda Police Force, which was a constabulary of 350
personnel, and the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force, which had 115
members. Although both forces reported to the deputy prime
minister, they were independent of each other. The Defence Force
filled the role of the SSUs established in other OECS countries; it
had only a ground element, as Antigua and Barbuda had no navy or
air force. The coast guard was subordinate to the Police Force.
Elements of both the Police Force and the Defence Force
participated in the United States-Caribbean military intervention
in Grenada in 1983 (see Current Strategic Considerations, ch. 7).
Antiguan and Barbudan forces stayed in Grenada until the spring of
1985 as part of the regional peacekeeping effort. Members of
Antigua and Barbuda's Defence Force returned to Grenada in late
1986 in response to a request from Grenadian prime minister Herbert
Blaize. Blaize had feared the eruption of violence as the Maurice
Bishop murder trial neared its end.
Antigua and Barbuda was an early supporter of the regional
defense force concept. Prime Minister Bird regarded the RSS as a
means of providing a counterinsurgency force in the event that
revolutionary forces established themselves on Antigua and Barbuda.
He felt that communist groups in the region saw the RSS as a threat
and therefore were trying to discredit the system. Although some
Caribbean heads of government remained opposed to the proposal,
Bird continued to support the establishment of an independent,
regional force and security system that could counter this
perceived threat to the RSS system and, by extension, OECS member
states (see A Regional Security System, ch. 7). In support of
United States military aid to the region, Antigua and Barbuda
received coast guard boats from the United States in the early
1980s and agreed to engage in joint coast guard patrols with
Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia. The Antigua and
Barbuda Defence Force and coast guard also participated in various
joint training exercises with the United States and other countries
in the region. At the same time, Antigua and Barbuda agreed to
permit United States facilities on Antigua to be used to train RSS
personnel.
* * *
A very useful overview of Antigua and Barbuda at the time of
independence is provided by Antigua and Barbuda
Independence, an official publication of the government of
Antigua and Barbuda edited by Ron Sanders. Paget Henry's
Peripheral Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Antigua covers
many aspects of Antiguan society and economy from a Marxist
perspective. The November-December 1981 issue of the Bulletin of
Eastern Caribbean Affairs includes several interesting articles
on the Constitution, agriculture, and society. Novelle H.
Richards's The Struggle and the Conquest, Pt. II: The Locust
Years provides a helpful glimpse at interparty dynamics and
political history. A closer look at Barbuda can be obtained in
Barbuda Reconnaissance by Richard Russell and William G.
McIntire; although dated in some ways, it offers useful
information, especially for those interested in local geology and
oceanography. (For further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.)
Data as of November 1987
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