On Thursday, October 14, The Perry Center partnered with NORAD, USNORTHCOM, USSOUTHCOM, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD-UK), and the Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC), to host the first virtual Caribbean Region Information Operations Council (CRIOC) meeting on “The Caribbean Threat Environment.”

CRIOC was established in 2013 as a multinational partnership between the militaries of United States, Great Britain, and Canada and our Caribbean military partners to use Information-Related Capabilities (IRCs) to support Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) efforts and combat transnational threat networks and illicit traffickers operating in the Caribbean region.

Current CRIOC members include: Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), Royal Bermuda Regiment (RBR), Royal Turks & Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF), Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), Trinidad & Tobago Defence Force (TTDF), and Haitian National Police – Coast Guard as well as representatives from N&NC/J39, SC/J39, JIAFTS, USCG D7, SOCNORTH, and SOCSOUTH. We are looking forward to the Regional Security System (RSS) and Barbados Defence Force (BDF) joining in the future as members.

The Caribbean threat environment is evolving rapidly with new threats emerging and compounding old ones. The Caribbean is the United States’ “third border,” but has not received the same attention as the borders with Canada and Mexico. The included presentation and slides emphasize the importance of the Caribbean region and the need to make it a higher priority in the future.

The featured speakers of this meeting were Drs. Anthony Clayton and Tress-Ann Kremer of the University of the West Indies, Mona. Perry Center Professor William Godnick served as one of the moderators.