Mediating Escape: Caribbean Conversations on In/Security, Tourism and Mobility

The Caribbean has figured prominently in narratives of security, mobility and transnational connections. Referred to as the 'Third Border' in US foreign policies, and inhabiting contradictory geopolitical spaces between North and South America, the region also negotiates narratives of in-betweenness and in/security in relation to more 'leisurely' pursuits, notably tourism. By revisting Stephanie Black's critically acclaimed documentary film, Life and Debt, and retheorising the concept of critical conversations, this paper analyses the ways in which representations of in/security have framed media images and policy discourses of Caribbean tourism. This retheorisation contributes to the development of interdisciplinary international debates on tourism promotion, inequality and policy decision-making. While geopolitics and tourism studies have largely tended to remain distinct areas of research, this particular film—and related conversations—illustrate the urgent need to exhume the nterdependency of both. Antonio Benitez-Rojo’s concept of ‘repeating islands’ is drawn upon to illustrate the ways in which re-examining representations of Caribbean tourism and geopolitics as part of a series of interconnected and multi-layered conversations, opens up new possibilities for interrogating how tourism narratives have reinforced, produced, and stifled opportunities for diverse, secure, creative and inclusive social spaces.