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U.S. Army War College >> Strategic Studies Institute >> Publications >> Western Hemisphere
At SSI, Western Hemisphere research concentrates on three areas: Western Hemisphere security, external influences on the Western Hemisphere, and the United States and the Western Hemisphere. Dr. Max Manwaring is our Western Hemisphere specialist.
(10/11/11) Remarks by a State Department official concerning internal displacement in Colombia, as well as a Congressional Budget Office cost estimate on the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act. (View it at NDU)
(3/5/08) The Colombia MiPAL has been updated with statements from President Bush and the United States Trade Representative on the Free Trade Agreement. Please see the Recently Added Documents section for the latest on this country - the newest updates are in bold. (View it at NDU)
(3/5/08) The Colombia MiPAL has been updated with statements from President Bush and the United States Trade Representative on the Free Trade Agreement. Please see the Recently Added Documents section for the latest on this country - the newest updates are in bold. (View it at NDU)
(2/21/08) The Colombia MiPAL has been updated with articles on the free trade agreement from the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Trade Policy Studies, a State Department statement on U.S. citizens held hostage by the FARC, and a report on humanitarian action in Colombia from the Humanitarian Policy Group. Please see the Recently Added Documents section for the latest on this country - the newest updates are in bold. (View it at NDU)
Authored by Douglas Farah.
The emergence of new hybrid (state and nonstate) transnational criminal/terrorist franchises in Latin America operating under broad state protection now pose a tier-one security threat for the United States. Similar hybrid franchise models are developing in other parts of the world, making understanding the new dynamics an important factor in a broader national security context.
Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
The purpose of the Key Strategic Issues List is to provide military and civilian researchers a ready reference for issues of special interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense.
Authored by Dr. Paul Rexton Kan.
Due to the ongoing and brutal drug cartel violence that has gripped portions of Mexico, there has been a rise in the number of Mexican nationals seeking political asylum in the United States to escape the ongoing drug cartel violence in their home country. This monograph focuses on the asylum claims of these "narco-refugees" who are unwillingly leaving Mexico, and it reviews the special challenges that these asylum seekers pose to U.S. national security interests and public safety.
Authored by Dr. George W. Grayson.
In recent years, the Mexican media has highlighted brutal acts of vigilantism, known as linchamientos or citizen violence, against suspected wrongdoers in their communities. Mobs have torched presumed pedophiles; average citizens have beaten suspected home invaders; and passengers on buses have hit, kicked, and tortured men who have tried to rob them. Is this behavior related to the nation’s bloody drug war? Does it spring from the indifference of police to poor areas? Or is a means for members of an anonymous crowd to release frustrations over persistent unemployment, acute poverty, and ubiquitous corruption?
Authored by Inigo Guevara Moyano.
Over the past 5 years, the Mexican armed forces have been used as the main tools of the government’s national security policy. They have endured attacks from organized crime and criticism from the media and civil society, forcing them to transform, modernize, and adapt to better fulfil their responsibility of protecting the Mexican state and its people.
Authored by Dr. R Evan Ellis.
This monograph examines Chinese military engagement with Latin America, finding that the level of such activity is higher than is generally recognized, and has expanded in important ways, with high-level trips by Latin American defense and security personnel, officer exchange programs, growing arms sales, military-relevant space, aviation, and telecommunications collaboration, and a small but important physical presence in the region.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring, Andrew Fishman.
Unlike other areas of the world, Brazil has no bloody religious or ethnic conflicts, and its last border conflict took place in the early 19th century. Brazil’s new national defense strategy consists of three principal elements that it hopes to develop: 1) advanced technologies; 2) a space program; and 3) a peaceful nuclear capacity.
Authored by Dr. George W. Grayson.
While claiming to do the “Lord’s work,” the ruthless leaders of La Familia Michoacana have emerged as the dominant exporter of methamphetamines to the United States, even as they control scores of municipalities in Michoacán and neighboring states.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring, Eva Silkwood Baker.
The critical need to develop a serious hemispheric partnership for opening “A New Chapter in Trans-American Engagement” was stressed at the 2010 Western Hemisphere Security Colloquium, held on May 25-26, 2010, in Miami, Florida. The issues and recommendations discussed emphasized that building a viable regional security partnership in the Hemisphere is not a strictly short-term, or unilateral, or even bilateral defense effort. Regional security will result only from long-term, multilateral, civil-military partnering efforts. Thus, the generalized results of the colloquium emphasize three highly interrelated needs and an associated recommendation.
Authored by Dr. Hal Brands.
The author discusses the grand strategy Brazil has pursued under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He argues that Lula’s policies have raised Brazil’s profile and enhanced its diplomatic flexibility, but have also exposed Brazil to several potent strategic dilemmas that could compromise, or at the very least complicate, its geopolitical ascent.
Authored by Dr. Hal Brands.
In this monograph, the author argues that rampant crime and violence have led to a full-blown crisis of the democratic state in Guatemala. He discusses the various criminal groups active in that country, and outlines a strategy for improving public order, strengthening government institutions, and combating the root causes that inform criminal activity.
Authored by Dr. Clayton K. S. Chun.
Rising oil prices facilitate the acquisition of greater resources and perhaps economic development. But oil revenues can also drive a government to finance massive military equipment purchases like Saudi Arabia did in 1979. The nature of governments that rely on raw material extraction and long-term development of military programs may affect how their current
and future spending occurs regardless of oil prices. How nations decide to use their national wealth helps explain some of the perennial problems facing oil and commodity exporting nations and provides insights into their relations with other countries.
Authored by Mr. Evan Brown, Dr. Dallas D. Owens.
The growing violence and instability in Mexico and the Caribbean will clearly demand greater attention from the United States in the future. As the trafficking organizations continue to defy authorities, undermine governance, and escalate violence, Mexico has become much more of a national security challenge rather than simply a border problem. This conference offered an important opportunity to assess these threats, and to consider what can be done to counter them.
Authored by COL Phillip R. Cuccia.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the January 2010 newsletter.
Authored by Dr. Sarah Meharg, Ms. Aleisha Arnusch. Edited by Professor Susan Merrill.
Security sector reform (SSR) has emerged since the end of the Cold War as an important tool for stabilizing and reconstructing post-conflict countries. It offers a means of arresting the failure process in failing states and supporting failed state
recovery. The U.S. Government endorses the concept of SSR as a component of stabilization reconstruction in the new (October 2008) U.S. Army Field Manual 3-07, Stability Operations.
Authored by Dr. Gabriel Marcella.
Colombia has experienced conflict for decades and, as the author observed, was a “paradigm for a failing state” in that it was replete with terrorism, kidnapping, murder, corruption, and general lawlessness. But today it is much safer through the imposition of the "Rule of Law."
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
A new and dangerous dynamic has been introduced into the Mexican internal security environment. That new dynamic is represented by a private military organization called the Zetas, and involves the migration of power from traditional state and nonstate adversaries to nontraditional nonstate private military organizations. Moreover, the actions of this irregular nonstate actor tend to be more political-psychological than military, and further move the threat from hard power to soft power solutions.
Authored by Dr. Hal Brands.
Frustration with poverty, corruption, and citizen insecurity within the political scene in Latin America is widespread as is political and ideological ferment. Given Latin America’s strategic importance to the United States, these changes and their diplomatic ramifications are of considerable interest to American policymakers.
Authored by Mr. Kenneth Michael Absher.
A detailed chronology and analysis of the intelligence failures and successes of the Cuban Missile Crisis is provided.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the August 2009 newsletter.
Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
The purpose of the Key Strategic Issues List is to provide military and civilian researchers a ready reference for issues of special interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense.
Authored by Dr. Hal Brands.
The alarming rise in drug-related violence in Mexico is discussed and the prospects of U.S. counterdrug policies in that country is assessed. The author argues that current U.S. policies are ill-suited for confronting the Mexican drug trade, and advocates a more holistic, better integrated approach to counternarcotics.
Authored by Dr. Phil Williams.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the April 2009 newsletter.
Authored by COL Alex Crowther.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the February 2009 newsletter.
Authored by Dr. Gabriel Marcella.
The concept of war without borders is used to analyze the strategic implications of the Colombian attack against a FARC camp inside Ecuadorean territory on March 1, 2008. Lessons learned apply directly to the policy of the United States and the hemispheric community.
Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
The Key Strategic Issues List gives researchers, whether military professionals or civilian scholars, a ready reference of those issues of particular interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense. Its focus is strategic, rather than operational or tactical. Every year, the KSIL helps guide research efforts to the mutual benefit of the defense community and individual researchers.
Authored by COL Alex Crowther.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the June 2008 newsletter.
Authored by COL Alex Crowther.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the March 2008 newsletter.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
Building on his 2005 monograph, Street Gangs: The New Urban Insurgency, the author answers questions regarding “What are the implications of the gang and other Transnational Criminal Organizations’ assault on stability in the Western Hemisphere?” and “What are the implications of the clash of values between liberal democracy and criminal anarchy?”
Authored by Dr. Gabriel Marcella.
A healthy Latin America is of critical value to the United States as a global power. It is besieged by a powerful force of resentment engendered by a combination of weak states, social exclusion, criminal violence, and corruption. The United States needs a new grand strategy that addresses the causes rather than the symptoms of the malaise.
Authored by Ms Janie Hulse.
China is increasing its presence in strategic industries in Latin America as U.S. engagement in the region wanes. Chinese involvement in Argentina’s telecommunications and space industries, in particular, creates security vulnerabilities for the United States and calls for enhanced U.S. commerce, aid, and diplomacy with Argentina and the region as a whole.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
The author answers questions regarding “What is President Hugo Chavez doing in Venezuela?” “What are his plans for the future and for the rest of Latin America?” and “What are the implications for stability and instability in the Hemisphere?”
Authored by COL Alex Crowther.
Whither Cuba's military?
Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
The Key Strategic Issues List gives researchers, whether military professionals or civilian scholars, a ready reference of those issues of particular interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense. Its focus is strategic, rather than operational or tactical. Every year, the KSIL helps guide research efforts to the mutual benefit of the defense community and individual researchers.
Authored by Ambassador Myles R. R. Frechette.
The United States has provided a considerable amount of economic, police, judicial, and military assistance to the American-Colombian strategic partnership since Plan Colombia. But much work looms ahead to eliminate the threats to state authority—the terrorism and the drug trafficking that nurture so much violence and corruption. These threats continue as the producers have learned how to outwit government counternarcotics efforts.
Authored by Dr. Francisco Wong-Diaz.
The United States, particularly the Army, has a long history of involvement with Cuba. What would be the strategic and political implications attendant to Castro’s eventual demise or incapacitation?
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College (USAWC); Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada; and the Canadian Land Forces Doctrine and Training System cosponsored a colloquium at Kingston, Ontario, Canada, on June 21-23, 2006.
Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
In today’s dynamic strategic environment, political changes can become challenges very quickly. Any list of key strategic issues must, therefore, include the broadest array of regional and functional concerns. This is a catalogue of significant issues, arranged as potential research topics, of concern to U.S. policymakers. As such, the KSIL is a ready source of topics that members of the defense community and academia can use to focus their research efforts.
Edited by COL Alex Crowther.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the July 2006 newsletter.
Authored by Commander Thomas D. Kraemer.
In his 2006 State of the Union address, President Bush proclaimed that "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world." The plan he then proposed is step one in weaning America from its addiction, and is a necessary but not fully sufficient step to ensuring our future national security through Middle East Oil independence.
Authored by Colonel Ian Nicholls, Dr. Jordi Diez.
After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, homeland defense became the primary issue in U.S. defense policy. It was clear that homeland defense would have to become a trilateral continental issue and include Canada and Mexico.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
The author answers questions regarding Who is Hugo Chavez? How can the innumerable charges and countercharges between the Venezuelan and U.S. governments be interpreted? What is Chavez's bolivarianismo? And, What are the implications for stability and instability in Latin America?
Authored by Dr. Thomas A. Marks.
At a time when counterinsurgency is again widely discussed, embattled Colombia has implemented a Democratic Security and Defense Policy that shows every sign of success against a complex narco-insurgency that has raged for four decades. The strategic initiative has been seized by acting upon the principle that personal security is the basis for state vitality.
Authored by Dr. Steve C. Ropp.
Are U.S. policy planners adequately prepared to deal with a potential future burst of populist turbulence in Europe or South America? Steve C. Ropp looks at this understudied phenomenon and offers some suggestions to strategic planners for mitigating its effects on the global democratic core of representative democracies.
Authored by Dr. R Evan Ellis.
The underlying demographic and economic trends driving China's engagement with Latin America are significant and enduring—indicating that China's increased presence in the Western Hemisphere is likely to both endure and expand. This paper explores these trends, their manifestations, and some of the dynamics through which they may impact the national security of the United States.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
The author identifies the political-strategic challenges of contemporary unconventional conflict. He focuses on the political complexity of the gang phenomenon, and the common linkage between third generation gangs and insurgents.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
The author identifies the strategic-political challenge of effective sovereignty and security, with a focus on nontraditional threats. If the United States and the other countries of the Western Hemisphere ignore what is happening in Latin America, the expansion of terrorism, "lawless areas," and general instability easily could destroy the democracy, free market economies, and prosperity.
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring, COL Wendy Fontela, Dr. Mary Grizzard, Mr. Dennis M. Rempe.
Dr. Max Manwaring and his team of conference rapporteurs have generated a substantive set of issues and recommendations. They have provided a viable means by which to begin the implementation of serious hemispheric security cooperation. This report comes at a critical juncture, a time of promise for greater economic integration between the United States and Latin America.
Authored by COL Stephen Brent Appleton.
The author examines the formal strategies of the U.S. and Canadian Armies within the context of present organizational thinking. He argues that both armies' inclination to internalize business concepts and strategies has left them in a precarious position with regard to strategy formulation and direction--one which could jeopardize the relevancy of their land forces.
Authored by Ambassador Pedro Villagra Delgado, Dr. Luiz Bitencourt, Major General Henry Medina Uribe.
There is a lack of a common view regarding precisely "What is a threat?" and "What is security?" which is the heart of the stability problem in Latin America. These authors acknowledge that the traditional definition of security and threat is no longer completely valid.