Extending Postcolonial Sovereignty Games: The Multilevel Negotiation of Autonomy and Integration in the 2010 Dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles and Dutch Kingdom Relations

Abstract

This paper analyzes ‘post-colonial sovereignty games’ by focusing on the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles within the context of the Netherlands and its Caribbean dependent territories. The Kingdom of the Netherlands was comprised of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. Since 10/10/10, the Dutch Kingdom has reconstituted as the Netherlands and ‘autonomous countries’ and ‘public bodies’ in the Caribbean. The paper argues ‘good governance’ and ‘neocolonialism’ are strategically invoked in these multilevel postcolonial sovereignty games where simultaneous trends of autonomy, integration, and more Netherlands involvement are ‘sui generis’ in international relations.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the comments of the reviewers, as well as those of Dr. David Blagden, Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter, on an earlier version, and Professor Dr. Dimitry Kochenov, University of Groningen.

Notes

1 Aruba 110,615 (CBS Aruba, 2016), Curaçao, 160,337 (CBS Curaçao, 2017), St. Maarten (Dutch side) 40,535 (Department of Statistics Sint Maarten, 2017), Bonaire, 19,408, St. Eustatius 3,193, Saba 1,947 (CBS.nl, 2016).

2 Kochenov (2011) argues this is avoided by moving to any other EU member state and then to the Netherlands (v, 1, p. 213).

3 Adler-Nissen and Gammeltoft-Hansen (2011) contends states engage in new practices and modify understandings of their own sovereignty in horizontal and vertical ‘sovereignty games’ to reassure legitimacy, power, and control with the result of sometimes ‘strengthening their position vis-‘a-.vis other actors’ (pp. 3, 15–16).

4 Adler-Nissen and Gad note OCT’s ‘are engaged in constructing their own identities—separate and distinct from their former colonizers—in more or less close cooperation with a supranational EU’ (p. 3).

5 See note 1.

6 Based on research and over 30 interviews with politicians, bureaucrats, scholars, and leaders in the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire 2011–2014.

7 Western allochtoon includes most Western European countries, North America, Oceania as well as Japan and Indonesia.

8 As ‘monetary sovereignty games’ (Herrmann, 2008, p. 69), the Caribbean guilder was to become the currency of Curaçao, and St. Maarten in 2011 but the Dutch Antillean guilder remains along with the Aruban guilder pegged to the US dollar. The US dollar rather than the Euro was adopted on the BES because the Dutch Ministry of Finance argued it would better assist macroeconomic stability and Caribbean regional integration. The Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten and the Central Bank of Aruba are responsible for their respective monetary policies. The BES is under the Central Bank of the Netherlands.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Professional Staff Congress-City University of New York Traditional B 45 [grant number 67617-00 45 2014-2015] and the Professional Staff Congress-City University of New York Traditional B 42 [grant number 64549-00 42 2011-2012].