US action in Venezuela shows world is now driven by hard power: Uday Kotak

Kotak Mahindra Bank founder Uday Kotak has linked the United States’ military action in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro to an intensifying global race among nations to acquire “hard power,” particularly control over strategic resources.  

In a post on social media platform X (formally twitter) on January 4, Kotak suggested that the US strike reflected Washington’s push to secure Venezuela’s vast energy assets. “The United States takes control over Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves on earth. As I said in my year-end musings, this is a world of hard power, and the race between nations is on,” the veteran banker wrote.  

Kotak’s remarks come amid dramatic geopolitical developments in Latin America after the US launched a military operation on January 3 that resulted in the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Both were flown to New York, where US authorities said Maduro would face long-standing criminal charges.  

In his year-end reflections published earlier, Kotak had warned of a global shift away from cooperation and dialogue toward more transactional and force-driven international relations. He argued that the world is becoming less tolerant of differing viewpoints, more divided socially, and increasingly dominated by hard power over soft power.  

“Less in-person interactions, environmental decline and pollution, wider divides in society, less tolerance to alternate points of view, more transient and transactional relationships, dominance of hard power over soft power,” Kotak wrote, adding that the competition between nations is intensifying “less mindful of consequences.”  

Following the operation, US President Donald Trump publicly confirmed that Washington would assume control over Venezuela’s administration, at least temporarily. “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference, without providing a timeline.  

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, a factor analysts say has long shaped US strategic interest in the country. Kotak’s comments underscore growing concern among global business and policy leaders that geopolitical competition for resources is accelerating, with force increasingly shaping outcomes.