Open Dialogue Research Journal
Here is from Semafor: https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/12/17/2025/semafor-flagship-oil-and-troubled-waters https://archive.is/kak6A “US blockades Venezuela oil tankers” 17 December 2025 US President Donald Trump ordered a “complete blockade” of oil tankers leaving Venezuela, ratcheting up tensions with Caracas and driving global crude prices higher. Trump said Venezuela was surrounded by the “largest Armada” in the region’s history, which includes […]
The Swedish police have promised it will go nowhere, but the attempt by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to draw attention to the inappropriateness of María Corina Machado as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient raises a few salient matters. On December 17, Assange submitted a criminal complaint to the Swedish Economic […]
Donald Trump, whom European leaders generally consider a populist with no political experience, has published his new National Security Strategy, a clumsily written document, but one of considerable philosophical scope. In it, he presents himself as a master of diplomacy and proposes, following President Andrew Jackson’s slogan, to replace war […]
For much of the 20th and early 21st centuries, US presidents rarely stated openly that Latin America was Washington’s strategic backyard. Instead, they relied on diplomatic language about cooperation, democracy and partnership. That era appears to be over. The Trump administration’s newly released National Security Strategy makes explicit what had […]
Political polarization indicates a possible shift to the right and withdrawal into the orbit of the United States. General elections were held in Chile on November 16 to elect senators, members of parliament, and the President. The intrigue was that the voting was already taking place under a new law, […]
The VLCC Skipper, seized by the US Coast Guard under a court warrant, with the assistance of two helicopters from the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, with US Marines carrying out the take-over of the ship, was a legal seizure under US and international law, despite statements by some […]
U.S. President Donald Trump announced casually, on December 10th, during an event at the White House, “We’ve just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela – large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually.” If that statement is true, then the U.S. Government has now engaged in a huge act […]
Pete Hegseth, the soap opera styled US Secretary of Defense, sports a questionable sanity. His behaviour before generals is the stuff of low comedy. His mania about sending narco-traffickers making passage on the sea from Venezuela to a watery grave has a millenarian zeal. But psychological coarseness and imperfection have […]
Part I A U.S. military strike – whether a limited set of precision airstrikes or a broader campaign – would have profound consequences. Inside Venezuela, such strikes would likely strengthen nationalist sentiment, especially if civilians are harmed. The Venezuelan military has the capability to retaliate against U.S. forces and cause […]
In 2025, tensions between the United States and Venezuela reached their highest level in years, driven by a combination of geopolitical ambition, domestic political calculations, and regional instability. What began as a U.S. rhetorical “crusade” against Latin American drug trafficking rapidly evolved into something that resembles preparations for a military […]
Comments