Concluding Remarks

Prior to independence, Jamaica’s foreign policy was formulated and implemented by British officials in the United Kingdom Foreign Office. Thus there was no certainty that Jamaica’s interaction with the rest of the world was designed to serve Jamaica’s interests. In the period immediately preceding independence there may arguably have been some degree of sensitivity to interests of Jamaicans in foreign affairs: so the Jamaican decision to withdraw from the West Indian federation—ultimately a foreign policy matter—was subjected to the will of the Jamaican populace through the plebiscitary process. Similarly, when the Norman Manley pre-independence Government placed a ban on trade between Jamaica and apartheid South Africa, this decision was recognized by the British Government although it was a foreign policy matter technically beyond the scope of formal Jamaican decision-making power. With the coming of independence Jamaica assumed final authority in both domestic and foreign policy spheres.