United States

Thomas Withington, a research associate at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said it was “entirely plausible” that US commandos had used a sonic device to subdue Mr Maduro’s bodyguards. However, he said he had not come across such extreme reactions to similar weapons. Dr Withington has previously experienced one of those sonic devices and described it as “horribly uncomfortable”. “But having those sorts of nosebleeds and horrible physiological results is new to me,” he added.

A lot of this depends on what they [the US] are attempting to do, whether that is punitive strikes to force the regime to back down from murdering their own citizens or whether they think there is an opportunity to push the regime over the edge and topple it. It might influence their thinking in terms of the level of force they are prepared to use."

If we look at US foreign policy at large we can see that the US that we knew for many decades - that acted not just in its own self-interest but for the collective good, and often subsumed its own interests for the collective good - that that United States has gone, and we're seeing now much more unilateral behaviour, much more mercantilist foreign policy. We're even seeing the US in some cases act above the law, both in US law and international law, and imposing its own will on other countries. So I think we'll see a continuation of that, the assertion of US interests unilaterally rather than in the collective good. And I think around the world we'll continue to see the erosion of international rules and norms that have constrained the worst behaviours in foreign policy and interventionism over the last few decades."