Editorial | Preparing for Nick Perry

By the standards of his last two predecessors, the speed of Joe Biden’s nomination of Nick Perry to be the US ambassador to Jamaica was lightning fast.

It took 16 months, after his inauguration in January 2009, for President Barack Obama to name Pamela Bridgewater, a career diplomat, as his choice for the post in Kingston. Donald Trump required more than two years before settling on Donald Tapia for the assignment. By the time Mr Tapia arrived in Kingston, he, as a political appointee, could serve only 19 months before his time was up, because Mr Trump lost the presidency. By contrast, Mr Biden required less than 11 months to name Mr Perry.

Hopefully, the speed of this decision reflects the importance Mr Biden attaches to US relations with Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean, rather than something to crown the political career of a loyal New York Democrat, or a favour to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, also a New Yorker and Mr Perry’s booster.

Whatever may be Mr Biden’s motivation, which he no doubt discussed with his vice-president, Kamala Harris (who also has Jamaican connection), his nominee should be able to manage expectations on either side, as well as bring unique, and valuable, perspectives to his ambassadorship.

Nick Perry, 71, was born in Jamaica. He emigrated to the United States as a young adult in 1971. His early experiences were shaped by Jamaica. Or, his contemporaries would probably claim, by Kingston College (KC), the Anglican grammar school of which he is an alumnus. For in a system where loyalty to the old school tie tends to last a lifetime, KC’s is considered the most chauvinistically perennial.

Moreover, as Mr Schumer and others have pointed out, Mr Perry has maintained social and political connections with Jamaica.

EXPERIENCED POLITICIAN

In other words, Nick Perry understands the lay of the land – on both sides. Further, he is an experienced politician and, by most accounts, an astute one who has deep roots in the New York City and New York State Democratic Party political machinery. Indeed, Mr Perry has lived in the United States for half a century, serving in the US armed forces. Since 1992, he has been a New York State Assemblyman for a district in Brooklyn. Before that he was active in non-elective political representation.

From this standpoint, it probably says much that Mr Schumer, on whom Mr Biden depends to push his policies through a narrowly divided Senate, has been Mr Perry’s leading, and most vocal, sponsor for ambassadorship. That is potential congressional/political leverage of which Jamaica should take note.

Nonetheless, whatever may be Mr Perry’s familial and social connection to Jamaica and the strength and longevity of the KC tie, it will be critical that Jamaica’s policymakers keep in mind that his obligation in Kingston will be to America. He will take an oath to promote, protect and defend the interests of the United States.

Which does not mean that Mr Perry will not be sensitive to Jamaica’s concerns. But Kingston, in advocating its interests, will find easier traction with the ambassador and his bosses if these are framed in, and are clearly seen to be, of mutual benefit.

In this regard, the old notion of a relationship based merely on the dynamics of power and handouts from rich America ought to be long past its time. Jamaica’s engagement with the United States and its representative in Kingston must be pursued on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty and good neighbourliness. In that context, there has to be a genuine embrace of the concept of Jamaica being of a region with which the United States shares its ‘third border’, whose protection is of mutual interest.

Protecting this border, however, is not only preventing global terrorists from reaching the United States or attacking soft American targets in Jamaica and the Caribbean, although these are important goals for the region. It is also about staving off social and political instability in the Caribbean, which are among consequences of economic stagnation and persistent underdevelopment.

BALANCED AND PRINCIPLED FOREIGN POLICY

Support for investment and growth in Jamaica – thus helping to create a society where crime does not fester and pressures for outward migration do not build-up – helps to protect America’s third border. These issues, therefore, ought to be part of early strategic dialogue with Mr Perry – as must be requests for America’s help in confronting the immediate, and worsening, problem of domestic criminality.

In pursuing the ideals of good neighbourliness with a powerful friend and partner, Jamaica must, at the same time, reassert a balanced and principled foreign policy which does not eschew alliances and associations that are to its benefit.

Mr Perry must hear, too, why it is to the mutual interest of Kingston and Washington that President Biden’s declarations about America’s return to multilateralism must mean more than rejoining the Paris Agreement and World Health Organization, or civil engagements at other United Nations agencies.

Balance in global development must be part of the agenda. In discussions about reforming the World Trade Organization, Mr Perry must be advised to relay to Washington, for instance, ways to rescue the failed promises to developing countries in the collapsed Doha Round.

Nick Perry probably still fully understands Jamaican, even if he might be rusty in speech. That should soon come back, enhancing communication between kith and kin, even when they are emissaries. Especially if there are shared values.