Ted Galen Carpenter

Senior Fellow
Media Contact: 
202-789-5200
Speaking Engagements: 
202-789-5269

Ted Galen Carpenter is senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Dr. Carpenter served as Cato’s director of foreign policy studies from 1986 to 1995 and as vice president for defense and foreign policy studies from 1995 to 2011. He is the author of nine and the editor of 10 books on international affairs, including The Fire Next Door: Mexico’s Drug Violence and the Danger to America, Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America, America’s Coming War with China : A Collision Course over Taiwan, The Korean Conundrum: America’s Troubled Relations with North and South Korea, Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington’s Futile War on Drugs in Latin America, The Captive Press: Foreign Policy Crises and the First Amendment, Beyond NATO: Staying Out of Europe’s Wars, and A Search for Enemies: America’s Alliances after the Cold War. Carpenter is contributing editor to the National Interest and serves on the editorial boards of Mediterranean Quarterly and the Journal of Strategic Studies, and is the author of more than 400 articles and policy studies. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National Interest, World Policy Journal, and many other publications. He is a frequent guest on radio and television programs in the United States, Latin America, Europe, East Asia, and other regions. Carpenter received his Ph.D. in U.S. diplomatic history from the University of Texas.

More from Ted Galen Carpenter

Commentary

The Iraq Debacle Continues

National Interest (Online). January 3, 2013.

Pyongyang Is Still Deterred

National Interest (Online). December 20, 2012.

Mexico Is Still Bleeding

National Interest (Online). December 14, 2012.

Studies

Undermining Mexico’s Dangerous Drug Cartels

Policy Analysis. November 15, 2011.

Why China and Russia Balk at Sanctions against North Korea and Iran

Nuclear Proliferation Update. March 22, 2010.

U.S. Conduct Creates Perverse Incentives for Proliferation

Nuclear Proliferation Update. December 28, 2009.

Articles

The Balkan Wars of the 1990s

Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History. 2012.

Cynical Myths and US Military Crusades in the Balkans

Mediterranean Quarterly. Vol. 3. No. 22. Summer 2011.

Estrangement: The United States and Turkey in a Multipolar Era

Mediterranean Quarterly. Vol. 21. No. 4. Fall 2010.

Public Filings

Escaping the Trap: Why the United States Must Leave Iraq

Congressional Testimony. January 11, 2007.

Foreign Assistance and U.S. Foreign Policy

Congressional Testimony. March 13, 1997.

Reviews & Journals

Multimedia

The Fire Next Door: Mexico’s Drug Violence and the Danger to America

November 29, 2012

Since the Mexican government initiated a military offensive against its country’s powerful drug cartels in December 2006, some 50,000 people have perished and the drugs continue to flow. The growing violence has created concerns that Mexico could become a failed state, and U.S. political leaders also worry that the corruption and violence is seeping across the border into the United States.

In his compelling new book, Ted Galen Carpenter details the growing horror overtaking Mexico and explains how the current U.S.-backed strategies for trying to stem Mexico’s drug violence have been a disaster. Boldly conveyed in The Fire Next Door, the only effective strategy is to defund the Mexican drug cartels by abandoning the failed drug prohibition policy, thereby eliminating the lucrative black-market premium and greatly reducing the financial resources of the drug cartels.

http://www.cato.org/store/books/fire-next-door-mexicos-drug-violence-danger-america-hardcover

Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.