Statehood à la Carte in the Caribbean and the Pacific

Jack Corbett's comparative focus on secessionist movements in the Caribbean and Pacific makes a significant contribution to the small states literature. Centring the autonomy-viability dilemma, which reflects the tension between the desire for secession and integration, Corbett reflects more broadly on the nature of contemporary statehood, the increased presence of small states in the international system, and the politics behind the social construction of the state. By focusing on the understudied area of secessionist movements in small states and employing a comparative lens to bring scholarship on the two regions together, Corbett has further expanded the scope of the literature on small states. * Patsy Lewis, Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University * This is another very welcome contribution by Jack Corbett that will be of interest to all Pacific scholars seeking to understand the complexities of postcolonial sovereignty and statehood. It offers a refreshing take on Hau'ofa's rallying cry for Oceania to reframe smallness, a novel Statehood a la carte concept, and considerable evidence of the ways small states reimagine their futures in their own terms and in ways which challenge tired approaches that foreground economic deficits. * Tearinaki Tanielu, Director for Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Government of Kiribati * This is a wonderfully original book. In it Jack Corbett teases out the many complexities and subtleties that characterize the way that sovereignty has actually been deployed in the small island states of the Caribbean and Pacific and, in so doing, brings to the wider political science debate about statehood and secession a rich and understudied body of new material. * Tony Payne, Emeritus Professor, University of Sheffield *