News Releases

UWI’s Knight and Bishop speak in Colombia on Shifts in Hegemony

For Release Upon Receipt - September 6, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad & Tobago – Is the world witnessing a shift in supremacy among major power states?

Professor W. Andy Knight, Director of the Institute of International Relations (IIR) of The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine, answers this question at Prospecta Caribe 2013, where he and Dr Matthew Bishop are currently representing The UWI.

Knight and Bishop join hundreds of Caribbean academics at the conference, which serves to create a new annual space for debate and discussion on the future of the Caribbean Basin, within the framework of sustainability and the improvement of the quality of life of the peoples of this region.

The themes focus on the future of the Caribbean economy in the world context, the future of the environment and the future of the Caribbean Basin integration. The most outstanding international futurists are sharing the stage with a large group of academics from the Region, government officials, university officials, non-governmental organizations, members of associations and trade associations, chambers of commerce and members of civil society interested in creating a promising future for the Greater Caribbean.

Professor Knight and Dr Bishop are collaborators on a research project titled ‘Hegemonic Transitions in the Caribbean’. Their presentation explores how periods of hegemonic transition open up windows of opportunities for small countries like Trinidad, with oil and gas resources, to find a niche for themselves within the evolving world order. According to their research, empirical events, including the recent visits of prominent world leaders to Trinidad and Tobago, point to the renewed importance of the Caribbean. They ask, “Why Trinidad, why now, and what can we learn about hegemonic change?”

Both Bishop and Knight are well placed to deliver on the theme. W. Andy Knight, PhD, FRSC, is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, the highest honour for Canadian academics. He has written on diverse aspects of multilateralism, governance and world peace, such as the reform of the United Nations. Dr. Matthew Bishop is a Lecturer at the IIR and an Honorary Member of the Institute of Political Economic Research in Sheffield, UK. His main area of research is the political economy of development, with a particular focus on small states and, especially, the independent and non-independent territories of the Caribbean. He is also managing editor of The Caribbean Journal of International Relations and Diplomacy, the Institute’s journal.

Prospecta Caribe 2013, which began on September 5, concludes today with remarks from Columbia’s Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Sergio Díaz Granados, among others. The event was held at the Almirante Hotel in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

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About The UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

 

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