By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus There comes a time in every nation’s history when all the people raise their heads high into the heavens, anticipating, knowing, something definitive is happening. We are in such a moment now in the face of foreign aggression. And so, on this day – December 3, 2023, from the enchanting vistas of Mabaruma and ...

by GHK Lall There is something in the air that introduces edginess. Something is not smelling right. The atmosphere has a taste that’s strange; it is not quite metallic, but there is an acidic strain about it. It has to do with the good, ole U.S. of A. I am getting the heebie-jeebies, getting ready to stand to attention. Reading ...

By R. Evan Ellis, a Latin America Research Professor at the U.S. Army War College. In the context of unfolding global conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the dangers of an increasingly aggressive yet economically fragile People’s Republic of China (PRC), Venezuela’s provocative referendum on its claim to two thirds of the territory of neighboring Guyana has received understandably little attention in Washington, D.C. In seeking ...

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus For those of us who have studied international affairs extensively, and who have focused on war, there are a few core principles that must always be followed. Here are the core principles as they apply to the current Guyana-Venezuela situation. Firstly, always take threats to your national security, and especially your territorial integrity, seriously. ...

by GHK Lall New depths are plumbed, new lows reached, when words intended to demean, degrade, diminish, and denigrate are hurled.  I could have used one word, but four with the same meaning are deployed for emphasis.  When hurtful words are used by ordinary citizens they are deplorable, when leaders deteriorate to the ugly and venomous, both word and act ...

by GHK Lall The President and Vice President are talking a good game about where Guyana stands against Venezuela’s ambitions.  To their efforts, I lend a shoulder of support.  Care has been taken to support the national cause, even when there are disagreements with approaches and actions, even attitudes.  But those misgivings are withheld in deference to the national interest.  ...

by GHK Lall President Ali has been busy, burns up a tremendous amount of energy in getting out Guyana’s side of the story in its now heated border controversy with neighboring Venezuela.  Credit is due for effort, and I give it.  The president has appealed to, and leaned on, CARICOM and the wider international community.  The UN Security Council has ...

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus International relations are different from international politics. The former is concerned with the routine matters in interstate interactions, and managed mostly by bureaucrats who follow standard operating procedures. The latter, however, are in the domain of high politics. At this level, the issue of power looms large, and the conduct of foreign policy ranges ...

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus Eighteen hundred years before Machiavelli, one the world’s first great realists, Kutilya (350 -283 BC), warned that one of the greatest threats to national security is an internally divided population. I doubt anyone in the APNU-AFC might have read Kutilya, but surely at least Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton must be familiar with the basics ...

by GHK Lall Yet again, I find myself agreeing with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.  When the Commissar soft-pedals Marxism-Leninism and dunks it over to the PPP Congress, I recognize a political operator of rare acumen.  Quick aside -if PPP hardheads think I am playing their General Secretary, they may be onto something, for I also know through whom the road ...