The Ward Post Bi-Monthly Brief
Vol. 3. No. 1. (January – February 2018)
The Ward Post Bi-Monthly Brief brings together in one convenient location a synopsis of, and links to the TWP blogs posted during the previous two months period.
T&T Don’t Blame Intelligence Services, Thank Them! (Ambassador Curtis A. Ward)
(02/19/2018) — A recent plot to commit terrorist acts in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) during the country’s Carnival celebrations, according to the country’s Prime Minister, was foiled due to intelligence cooperation with the United States. It doesn’t matter the source of the intelligence. The government and people of the twin island state should be thankful there were no lives lost to an act of terrorism, this time. The entire Caribbean should be grateful and be awakened to the real possibility that acts of terrorism are possible in the region. Hence, the question is whether each Caribbean government has an intelligence service with the requisite capacity necessary to prevent acts of terrorism taking place in each respective territory. …Read More
Trinidad & Tobago Faces Terrorist Threat (Ambassador Curtis A. Ward)
(02/10/2018) — It came as no surprise when news broke that U.S. intelligence services had warned the Government of Trinidad & Tobago (Trinidad) of plots to carry out terrorist attacks during Trinidad’s Carnival 2018 celebrations. Trinidad has been vulnerable for years and successive governments have failed to undertake necessary and timely action to ensure that the country has in place appropriate laws, and administrative and operational capacities to deal with the terrorist phenomenon. …Read More
Cuba and Venezuela in Trump’s Cross-Hairs (Ambassador Curtis A. Ward)
(02/03/2018) — Characterizing Cuba and Venezuela as “communist and socialist dictatorships,” against which sanctions have been imposed, in his State of the Union address 30 January 2018 should come as no surprise to anyone tracking President Donald Trump’s prior statements and actions towards these two countries. President Trump’s targeting of Cuba and Venezuela carries out promises he made repeatedly to supporters during his campaign for the presidency in 2016. His anti-Cuba stance helped him win Florida, in particular with Cuban-American supporters. The drumbeat within the Trump administration on U.S.-Cuba policy also represents a determination by Trump to reverse actions taken by President Barack Obama’s in his rapprochement with Cuba. Trump’s policy towards Venezuela has been consistent with his declaration that all measures, including the use of force, are on the table to effect changes to the Nicolás Maduro regime. …Read More
Tillerson’s Jamaica visit will divide CARICOM, Unless… (Ambassador Curtis A. Ward)
(01/27/2018) — While Secretary Rex Tillerson’s scheduled visit to Jamaica has been received with some level of scepticism, any visit by a U.S. Secretary of State to Jamaica should be welcome news. Ordinarily, such visits are expressions of good working relationships, and often used to strengthen ties even further. On the other hand, there are also visits by U.S. Secretaries of State which are triggered by disagreements on bilateral, regional, and global issues, and such visits are used to heal wounds or to issue threats. While we support the positive reasons given ahead of this visit, we cannot be oblivious to the possible negative implications inherent in a Tillerson visit to the region at this stage of Trump administration’s hemispheric relations and policies. …Read More
HAITI : Caribbean Dignity Unbowed (Press Statement by Professor Hilary Beckles, Vice Chancellor, University of the West Indies)
(01/13/2018) –The democratic, nation-building debt the American nation owes the Caribbean, and the Haitian nation in particular that resides at its core, is not expected to be repaid but must be respected. Any nation without a nominal notion of its own making can never comprehend the forces that fashion it origins.
Haiti’s Caribbean vision illuminated America’s way out of its colonial darkness. This is the debt President Trump’s America owes Toussaint L’Ouverture’s Haiti. It’s a debt of philosophical clarity and political maturity. It’s a debt of how to rise to its best human potential. It’s a debt of exposure to higher standards. Haiti is really America’s Statue of Liberty. ...Read More
Blackmailing Pakistan is Bad U. S. Policy (Ambassador Curtis A. Ward)
(01/07/2018) — Anyone who understands the geopolitical and security dynamics of Pakistan and neighboring countries – Afghanistan, Iran, India, and China – and the complex and variable relationships between and among these countries, must be scratching their heads trying to figure out current U.S. strategy in the region. Arguably, the most plausible conclusion is that by undermining the Pakistani military, as President Donald Trump has done by cutting military-security assistance and support, it threatens U.S. national security interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the entire sub-region. …Read More
© 2018 Curtis A. Ward/The Ward Post
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