On May 21, 2026, the Inter-American Dialogue’s Asia & Latin America Program held “New Currents in Climate Diplomacy: Resilience, Partnership, and the Evolving Global Landscape,” the first event in a private roundtable series titled “Comparative Policymaking in a Shifting Global Architecture: Approaches from the Caribbean and the Pacific.” During the event, experts from Pacific and Caribbean policy, academia, and multilateral communities examined how Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are navigating an increasingly fragmented and transactional international environment. Discussion centered on the evolving relationship between climate diplomacy, geopolitical competition, development finance, sovereignty, and strategic agency.
This document includes think pieces by Nand C. Bardouille, manager of Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean in the Institute of International Relations at The University of the West Indies St. Augustine Campus; UnaMay Gordon, senior climate change expert & resilience advisor and former principal director of climate change of Jamaica; Rueanna Haynes, head of diplomacy and director of Climate Analytics Caribbean; and Satyendra Prasad, principal technical lead for climate and localisation at Abt Global and former permanent representative of Fiji to the United Nations. Each of these authors considers how Caribbean and Pacific states are navigating a rapidly shifting global order, with focused attention on the ways in which climate change and a shifting donor landscape are meaningfully altering the opportunities and constraints facing these regions.
