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The authors begin from the premise that it is useful to analyse broad trends in international affairs by identifying key moments of change. The primary focus is the current phase of international affairs that has been labelled the post-Cold War world. The authors accept that the fall of the USSR at the end of 1991 marked an important change in geopolitics but argue that the 30-year time period since the fall of the Soviet Union has been marked by some very important changes. The era began with a seemingly omnipotent United States that proclaimed a New World Order of peace, prosperity and democracy. The authors analyse how that vision did not come to pass in the context of wars in the Middle East and the rise of China as a great power and the recovery of Russia. Cuba's role in the post-Cold War era is analysed and preliminary thoughts are made on the potential changing world order in the context of the Russia-Ukraine War.

Donald Trump won the 2016 US presidential election without a clearly articulated policy for either Cuba or the Latin American/Caribbean region as a whole. Two years into that presidency, this article seeks to describe that policy and place it within Trump's wider foreign policy. The article deconstructs the worldview of 'America First' as lying within the perspective of the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party, epitomised by John Bolton, the current National Security Advisor. The implications of that worldview for Cuba and Latin America make for a reversal of Obama's opening to Cuba, a hardline on immigration from Mexico and Central America, and greater pressure for regime change in both Venezuela and Nicaragua. Also analysed is the resonance of Trump's policies with the recent turn to the political right in Latin America, notably in Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Colombia.

"Cuba and Integration Processes in Latin America and the Caribbean" published on by Oxford University Press.

The 2021 local election in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) saw a change in the fortunes of the two leading political parties, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), in the context of a low-turnout election. The DA lost its advantage from the 2016 election and fell back into a tie with the ANC in the number of councillor seats. The equal position of the two leading parties led to an outsized role for smaller parties, including a minor party, the Northern Alliance, currently holding the mayor's office in an ANC-led coalition. The authors use the lens of Gavin Davis's theory on race-based campaigning to analyse the election results and the "violent democracy" framework of Von Holdt to analyse the political situation in the townships, where violence coexists with relatively high levels of political pluralism and participation. Also analysed is the challenge of coalition governments at the local level, and suggestions for electoral reform are offered.