THERE is one issue that probably will not get much play during the current election campaign, that neither political party will devote much time to - and that is the contentious matter of whether 21st-century Bermuda should now develop its own foreign policy.

Building international bridges is a natural thing for any country to do. It does not mean that you suddenly take hostile stances towards traditional friends or start courting traditional enemies. It is simply an accepted norm that countries engage in international relations to further their own economic, social and cultural interests.

In the Bermudian context - and given Bermuda's status as a British Overseas Territory - the subject is almost taboo: the idea that Bermuda might in its own right have a view of the world that may run counter to that which is sanctioned by the more powerful of this world.

Of course, there are those who believe the current state of affairs is just fine for Bermuda and will sieze upon this reality to argue that Bermuda cannot - indeed should not - think in terms of making its own foreign policy decisions.

Bermuda, as a colony (or whatever you want to call it) must always defer to Britain in this area, as the recent controversy over whether Bermuda should export its used buses to Cuba or pursue a cultural relationship with that country has highlighted.

Bermuda's ongoing status as a British Overseas Territory allows you to ignore the question of foreign affairs - even if that means you end up burying your head in the sand and simply hoping for the best.

It means that Bermudians, by and large, continue to cling to the myth - despite all the evidence to the contrary - that the "benevolent" great powers would never dream of acting in ways that would adversely impact on our island's interests.

Has Bermuda ever pursued a path which could broadly be defined as an independent foreign policy. To get some type of an answer to this question, we will have to penetrate the romanticised veneer of Bermuda's long history and ask some tough questions.

Just look at the so-called Gunpowder Plot during the American Revolutionary War when, in exchange for an American promise not to blockade the island, some sympathetic Bermudians helped the rebels steal gunpowder stored on the island so it could be used against the British.

Today, this event is viewed as rather quaint, an historical curiosity. It was what those island people were likely to do; the early Bermudians were part fishermen, prone to commit piracy on the high seas, and all-around vagabonds. When I was taught about this aspect of Bermuda's history as a schoolboy, I recall it being taught without commentary. The event was not put into its proper historical context. After all, Bermuda was a loyal British colony and the gunpowder that was stolen ended up being used to kill British soldiers in the American War of Independence. Technically, the Gunpowder Plot constituted high treason against the Crown. But Bermuda would have ceased to be economically viable - and probably would have starved - if the islanders had not collaborated with the American rebels to keep their ports open.

Likewise, during the American Civil War, ships bound to and from the Southern Confederate States were allowed to dock in Bermuda - using St. George's as a staging point in their efforts to evade the Northern blockade of Southern ports.

I wonder what the Bermuda decision-makers of that day would think of the controversy surrounding what Government is now doing with regard to establishing ties with Cuba given their decision to aid the Confederacy deeply upset Washington, which was in the midst of a bitter war to preserve the Union?

And who made the decision to send Bermudians down to the Turks and Caicos to rake salt, a short-lived attempt on the part of Bermudians to colonise another part of the world for profit?

All of these events from our history show that Bermuda, from time to time, has followed a semi-independent foreign policy when it has been in the island's interests to do so,

BERMUDIANS in the 18th and 19th centuries understood they had a right and an obligation to act in their own interests but today that realisation seems to have been lost. It has vanished to the point that many Bermudians do not seem to believe the island has any right to chart its own international course.

Perhaps the most pointed example of this involves the history and circumstance of how Bermuda came to host the American bases during World War Two. We only tended to notice the economic benefits that accrued to us by having the American military here during the Second World War and throughout the Cold War - we never stopped to examine the overall consequences for Bermuda. If we had initial concerns that a US military presence here might make Bermuda a target for either the Germans or, later, the Soviets, these were soon overshadowed by a sense of gratitude to the US for having built the airfield that now serves as Bermuda's International Airport.

Any criticism of the American military presence here used to be deemed as tantamount to treason. But the fact is the American military's contributions to Bermuda's infrastructure blinded us to our own potential; for we failed to see that if the Americans had not built the airfield, then, in the post-World War Two era, we would have gone on to build one of our own - even if that had meant begging, borrowing or whatever to get the job done.

Until the American military finally upped stakes and left Bermuda in 1995, we heard a lot about how the US bases in Bermuda played a vital role in protecting the America's East Coast from Soviet submarines armed with ballistic missiles.

WE never heard anything about Bermuda's own legitimate defence needs in the event of the Cold War between the US and the USSR suddenly turning hot. What provisions were in place to protect the Bermudian people in case the Soviets submarine decided on a first-strike strategy to destroy the American listening posts on the island?

The "collateral damage" to Bermuda and Bermudians in the event of such a strike would have been horrendous, apocalyptic even. But such issues were never addressed, not even by Bermuda's political leaders.

In the future, probably the not too distant future, Bermuda will be forced to confront the issue of its international relations. As we look at the changing circumstances of the world today, and the new centres of conflict and competition between nations, we begin to see new geo-political fault lines emerging.

If Iraq had not become the flashpoint, splitting Europe and America on the question of military intervention, another issue would have driven a wedge between them eventually.

For the reality is that the European Unity is gathering speed, becoming an increasingly important player on the world stage (for a greater understanding of this, I recommend you read the book The End of the American Era: US Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the 21st century by Charles A. Kupchan).

One day we will have to choose - as Britain itself will have to choose - between America and Europe.

At that point, Bermudians had better be prepared to act - and act as decisively as our ancestors did - to safeguard our interests.

And we had better have a political leadership in place that understands this; if not, we will become even more confused about our little role in the world and how best to protect ourselves and our own special needs.