GUYANA WILL WELCOME VENEZUELA PERSONNEL FOR SECURITY AND DEFENCE TRAINING

The University of Guyana and Guyana as a whole was recently recognised and celebrated for its hard work and dedication to education in the field of hemispheric security and defense in the form of an award from the prestigious William J Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.

The accolade although being announced last year was officially bestowed by Director of the Perry Center Dr Dr Paul J Angelo yesterday March 13, to the University in the presence of HE President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Vice Chancellor Professor Paloma Mohamed, and other dignitaries.

Photo courtesy of Office of the President of Guyana Facebook Page

In his detailed remarks, Dr Ali not only congratulated UG on realizing his vision but also provided a laundry list of others areas for collaboration including cyber security, port security, digitization and artificial intelligence, and terrorism especially within the Americas.

These threats, President Ali believes can only be properly countered or foiled if they are properly analysed which requires the best educated minds.

These “battle ready brains” can only be achieved through strong education partnerships such as the one shared with the Perry Center and like institutions. To this end the President announced his plan to launch the National Defence Institute at the University of Guyana by no later than June 2024.

President Ali’s vision for this institution and Guyana is to position this school and the country as the premiere location for security and defense training in the Americas.

“We want to see this extended and Guyana positioned as a central hub for security training and integration of our leaders across the region in terms of our security management and defence leadership.”

This, the Guyanese leader said would include even personnel from countries like Venezuela. This is despite of fact that Guyana’s Spanish speaking neighbour is actively trying to claim ownership of significant portion of Guyana.

Expanding further on strategic partnerships explained that maintaining strong alliances are key to hemispheric security especially now when authoritarian leadership continues to be attractive to the region.

President Ali believes that building a less attractive environment to would deter authoritarianism.“To deal with this we have to deal with security as a lifelong investment not just as an opportunistic investment when a challenge arises.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by Dr Angelo who said The Perry Center is confident it can count on Guyana’s leadership because the Government has come to the table with the same operating assumptions.

“In one resounding answer to Guyana’s challenges has been to develop and expand the country’s security and defense capabilities through education and international collaboration with partners”, he said.

The Perry Center Director also added that in awarding the University of Guyana with 2023 prize for “Excellence in Security and Defense Education” that his institution was also “recognising a partner in peace (and) a leader in education”

In September 2023 while President Ali visited the prestigious William J Perry Center, it was announced that Guyana would be the recipient of the award after being nominated by Brigadier Omar Khan.

The Masters of Science programme in Strategic Development Studies was launched in 2022 and has seen 17 graduates thus far.

The programme was developed as a result of a collaboration between The University of Guyana, Guyana Government Agencies— National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) and the Guyana Defense Force (GDF)—and the United States Government through the William J. Perry Center among others.