Alfredo Toro Hardy
ALFREDO TORO HARDY is a retired Venezuelan diplomat, scholar and author. He has served as ambassador to the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil, Singapore, Chile and Ireland. He has directed the Diplomatic Academy of the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other academic institutions. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations and a member of the Review Panel of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. Alfredo Toro Hardy is the author of twenty-one books and co-author of fifteen others on international affairs and history. His latest book “America’s Two Cold Wars: From Hegemony to Decline?” was published in March 2022.
By Alfredo Toro Hardy On May 16 of this year, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping signed a 7,000 words-long joint statement. In it, they agreed to deepen their “strategic partnership”, taking it to a “new era”, while scolding the United States…
By Alfredo Toro Hardy Referring to the contrasting interpretations of universality in China and the West, Martin Jacques refers that both perceive themselves to be universal, albeit in totally different ways. Whereas in the West universality is linked to the notion of proselytizing…
By Alfredo Toro Hardy Having attained a remarkable success with its containment policy towards the Soviet Union, nothing seemed more natural for the United States than to put in motion the same policy in relation to a rival China. Even if not labelling…
By Alfredo Toro Hardy Among the global geostrategic trends, three stand out. The first one is the strengthening of a revisionist axis that, at odds with the post-WWII rules-based liberal international order, aims at consolidating spheres of influence and geostrategic expansion. The second,…
By Alfredo Toro Hardy The war in Afghanistan decisively contributed to the economic exhaustion of the Soviet Union and to the need of substantial reforms that led to the implosion of its system. There was, thus, a direct causation between events in Afghanistan…
By Alfredo Toro Hardy Vladimir Putin represents a fundamental benchmark for hard right populists. This includes not only European ones but also MAGA Republicans and Global South leaders like former presidents Jair Bolsonaro and Rodrigo Duterte. The reasons behind their fascination for the…
By Alfredo Toro Hardy From the very beginning of its independent life, the United States set its sights on what was later to be called Latin America, as a natural space for projection and influence. According to Brian Loveman: “Thomas Jefferson worried in…
By Alfredo Toro Hardy If one thing has stood up in the course of Japan’s history, it has been its capacity to radically change its national project every time that circumstances require it. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, faced by a…