This book analyzes the international relations of Mexico and the two most important sub-state governments of the United States, California and Texas. It explains why and how these two states conduct their international relations (IR) with Mexico and the world, and how national authorities and local governments coordinate in the definition and implementation of their international policies. Expert contributors from across the Americas offer a historical and current analysis, exploring which areas of cooperation—trade, investment, border cooperation, energy, migration—matter most. They also consider the institutional and legal bases of Mexican and U.S. states’ international relations, the changing nature of the U.S. federal system, the impact on international partners, the role of Latinos and the future of paradiplomacy in the region. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of International Relations, comparative politics, diplomacy, foreign policy, governance, and federalism, as well as business people, social leaders, and practitioners of diplomacy and paradiplomacy around the world.

In her Brookings Essay, The Wall, Brookings Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown explains the true costs of building a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, including (but not limited to) the estimated $12 to $21.6 billion price tag of construction. Felbab-Brown explains the importance of the United States' relationship with Mexico, on which the U.S. relies for cooperation on security, environmental, agricultural, water-sharing, trade, and drug smuggling issues. The author uses her extensive on-the-ground experience in Mexico to illustrate the environmental and community disruption that the construction of a wall would cause, while arguing that the barrier would do nothing to stop illicit flows into the United States. She recalls personal interviews she has had with people living in border areas, including a woman whose family relies on remittances from the U.S., a teenager trying to get out of a local gang, and others.

The editors of this collection of sixteen articles argue the relationship between the United States and Mexico is at its most tenuous in recent memory. Each article explores the future of US-Mexico relations, focusing on relevant topics such as trade, water, drugs, health, immigration, environmental issues and security. Employing a strategic foresight methodology, the authors use past trends and identify pivotal drivers to predict, based on indicators, at least three possible outcomes for the next few decades: a baseline or continuity scenario, an optimistic version and a pessimistic one. They also articulate the implications each forecast has for both nations. Most chapters are co-written by a scholar from the United States and another from Mexico. While acknowledging it is impossible to predict the future, they nonetheless describe what could occur. Ultimately, the authors of the articles in this fascinating volume make recommendations to achieve a peaceful, integrated and prosperous North America that will drive the world economy. The book is required reading for anyone interested in the binational relationship and the well-being of citizens in both countries.