Forty years after the US invasion of Grenada: lessons for the 21st Century
Five years after gaining independence on February 7, 1974, Grenada embarked on a national revolutionary process which brought about many remarkable accomplishments but failed on several fronts. Opposed by the US for four years, the process imploded and collapsed a few days prior to the US invasion on Tuesday, October 25th, 1983. On that day, US troops landed in Grenada in its first direct military intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1965 in the Dominican Republic, and its first military action since the Vietnam War. Codenamed “Operation Urgent Fury” by the Reagan administration, the invasion was supported by members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and opposed by the United Kingdom and Canada. The United Nations General Assembly, by a vote of 108 to 9 on November 2, 1983, declared the military action on the Eastern Caribbean Island nation “a flagrant violation of international law.” Both the revolution and the military action would have great impact on Grenada’s post-invasion development, on the relationship of OECS member countries with the US, as well as on the Caribbean’s regional integration movement.
This event, forty years later, brings together three long-time Grenadian experts who will reflect on and analyze what the invasion of 1983 meant for the people and the development of Grenada and its implication for the wider Caribbean region and relations with the US. The panelists will also analyze lessons learned over the past forty years and how those lessons may have impacted the development of Grenada and the Caribbean in the years that followed and how they may impact Grenada and the region’s future as it faces common political, economic, security and environmental challenges. This as Grenada prepares for its 50th year of independence in February 2024.
Panelists
The Honorable Dessima Williams, SFS Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Perspectives. A Grenadian diplomat who served as Ambassador to the Organization of American States and to the United Nations, Chair of the Alliance of Small Island Developing States and UN Special Advisor for the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG. She is currently President of the Grenada Senate.
Dr. Wendy C. Grenade, author and Professor, St. George’s University, Grenada, and a former diplomatic officer for Grenada.
Dr. Denis Antoine, author and former Ambassador of Grenada to the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Panama, China and the United Nations
The event will also feature:
Welcome remarks by Joel Hellman, Dean, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University;
and an Introduction by Angelo Rivero Santos, CLAS Interim Director and Teaching Associate Professor, SFS.