The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft online Zoom conversation featuring Prof. John Mearsheimer, Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Curt Mills, and Miguel Tinker Salas is free but requires registration:
Date & Time: Jan 6, 2026 02:00 PM
On January 3, 2026, the United States launched a complex military operation against Venezuela, conducting airstrikes across Caracas and other key locations, and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Maduro was seized and flown out of the country to face criminal charges in the United States. According to the Trump administration, the United States will govern Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” occurs, the timeframe of which remains undefined.
This intervention — the most audacious U.S. military project in Latin America in decades — has rapidly reshaped the geopolitical landscape. International reactions range from strong condemnation by regional governments who decry violations of sovereignty to allied statements that welcome the removal of Maduro’s authoritarian regime. What is likely to happen now in Venezuela? Will this be a successful regime change operation, or will it follow the path of Iraq and Libya? What will be the implications of the administration’s assertion of America’s domination of the Western Hemisphere, and how will regional states react in the long run? And what are the global implications? Will this set a precedent that China will use in Taiwan, for instance?
To discuss these questions and more, join a QI conversation featuring John Mearsheimer, non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, Miguel Tinker Salas, non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and professor emeritus of Latin American History at Pomona College, and Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative. Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, senior advisor for the Quincy Institute and editor-in-chief at Responsible Statecraft, will moderate.
