This edition provides a starting point in understanding U.S. – Mexico relations and the border issues. The book addresses the importance of strategic guidance and the dangers of certain hasty actions, as it relates to operational planning for synchronized tactical actions and border politics. Analyzing Mexico's drug-war offers a crucial case study to help understand the current situation surrounding non-traditional forms of war, such as a drug related war, and how Mexico's internal conflict impacts their regional neighbors as well as the international community. Content: Understanding the Current Situation Rise of Drug Trafficking Organizations in Mexico Causes and Costs of Instability in Mexico Developing an Understanding of the Strategic Approach United States' Strategic Vision to Achieve Security and Stability in Mexico Mexico's Strategic Vision for Security and Stability within their Borders The International Community's Strategy for Security and Stability in the Western Hemisphere Linking Strategies to Tactics: The Current Operational Approach Presidential Executive Order 13535: Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking Presidential Executive Order 13768: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States

This occasional paper is a concise overview of the history of the US Army's involvement along the Mexican border and offers a fundamental understanding of problems associated with such a mission. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the historic themes addressed disapproving public reaction, Mexican governmental instability, and insufficient US military personnel to effectively secure the expansive boundary are still prevalent today.

This report is one of several studies conducted by UNODC on organized crime threats around the world. These studies describe what is known about the mechanics of contraband trafficking - the what, who, how, and how much of illicit flows - and discuss their potential impact on governance and development. Their primary role is diagnostic, but they also explore the implications of these findings for policy. Publisher's note.

Geopolitical Landscapes of Donald Trump examines the role that local actors in Mexico, Central America and the United States have played in shaping the Mexico-Guatemala transborder region. From governments to business and organized crime, scholars from both Mexico and the United States introduce a sophisticated approach beyond diplomatic communiqués to tell the story of how Mexico became the wall that Donald Trump promised to build. This is a story of how governments defended their sovereignty in their discourse, only to pave the way for punitive policies that hurt their fellow citizens. The inequalities brought by the extractive economy, the homicides and displacement wrought by the systemic violence, the exodus pushed by environmental degradation and the political crisis generated by economic, political, and military elites need to be addressed to make the transborder region livable for its own population. Geopolitical Landscapes of Donald Trump will be of interest to scholars and students of international relations and Latin American Studies. It will also be of interest to policymakers, practitioners, and general readers who are following US-Mexico and US-Central America relations.

The primary thrust of the monograph is to explain the linkage of contemporary criminal street gangs (that is, the gang phenomenon or third generation gangs) to insurgency in terms f the instability it wreaks upon government and the concomitant challenge to state sovereignty. Although there are differences between gangs and insurgents regarding motives and modes of operations, this linkage infers that gang phenomena are mutated forms of urban insurgency. In these terms, these "new" nonstate actors must eventually seize political power in order to guarantee the freedom of action and the commercial environment they want. The common denominator that clearly links the gang phenomenon to insurgency is that the third generation gangs' and insurgents' ultimate objective is to depose or control the governments of targeted countries. As a consequence, the "Duck Analogy" applies. Third generation gangs look like ducks, walk like ducks, and act like ducks - a peculiar breed, but ducks nevertheless! This monograph concludes with recommendations for the United States and other countries to focus security and assistance responses at the strategic level. The intent is to help leaders achieve strategic clarity and operate more effectively in the complex politically dominated, contemporary global security arena.

Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents is a series that provides primary source documents and expert commentary on various topics in the worldwide effort to combat terrorism. Among the documents collected are transcripts of Congressional testimony, reports by such federal government bodies as the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), United Nations Security Council resolutions, reports and investigations by the United Nations Secretary-General and other dedicated UN bodies, and case law from the U.S. and around the globe covering issues related to terrorism. Most volumes carry a single theme, and inside each volume the documents appear within topic-based categories. The series also includes a subject index and other indices that guide the user through this complex area of the law. Volume 127, The Changing Nature of War, tackles how the approach to training for and fighting wars and readying national security is likely to evolve as the United States moves further into the 21st Century. Professor Douglas Lovelace, Jr. has organized and provided framing and illustrative commentary on Congressional Research Service reports, Presidential policy statements, Department of Defense strategy papers, and research reports from the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute on contemporary national security topics as: United States war planning; the inter-related policy and force-related concerns of shifting from counterinsurgency-based efforts abroad to a focus on counterterrorism both domestically and abroad; transnational organized crime, with particular emphasis on the Mexican drug cartels operating along the U.S.-Mexico border; and the ever-expanding national security and private economic ramifications of cyberwarfare.