It is clear from a recent visit to Washington that there is a renewed interest in the Caribbean and that its concerns are back on the US agenda. How this has come about owes little if anything to the usual process of policy development, but to an accidental and helpful confluence of events and timing.
It is leading legislators, administration officials, think tanks and friends of the region to the conclusion that the next six months will be critical to driving forward a practical agenda that could set the scene for the next US administration.
The events that have brought this about are diverse, but each in its own way has led to the sense that now is the time for a greater focus on the Caribbean region as well as Central America.