Americanised,Decolonised, Globalised and Federalised

ABSTRACT

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the newest member of the US polity, has experienced an exhilarating and traumatic ‘coming of age’ as it seeks to define its place in the evolving Asian-Pacific community and regional economic and security regimes. Its ‘free market philosophy’ commercial expansion in the last quarter of the 20th century, driven by US federal funding, East Asian tourism and garment manufacturing, was hailed as an economic miracle, but relied heavily on a foreign worker programme that came under intense criticism from US unions, human rights advocates and US Democratic Party leaders. Following a prolonged economic depression due to world trade liberalisation, Japan's tourism realignment and US imposition of minimum wage and immigration laws, CNMI leaders struggle to recompute the islands’ comparative advantages and find a strategy for renewed commercial growth and economic security. However, the exodus of foreign workers and rising labour costs continue to challenge the CNMI's recovery efforts.