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121. Report on the Security Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean

Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform
Abstract:
Security is one of the most urgent problems in Latin America and the Caribbean today. The topic is a central concern of citizens in practically all of the countries. Moreover, it is one of the central issues affecting relationships among states and government finances. From the perspective of individuals, it affects the daily life of the population. Moreover, in many of these countries, the institutions affiliated with the security sector have taken on roles beyond those originally assigned to them. In the past, in various countries, security sector institutions have directly intervened in national political life, which with the installation of democratic regimes, has required an effort to “adjust” to new political systems. It is in this context that reform efforts arise that, in many instances, are not in line with the goals of strengthening the rule of law, democracy, and professionalism of the sector.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Latin America and Central America

122. Latin America and the Caribbean: Domestic and Transnational Insecurity

Author:
Arlene B. Tickner
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the end of the Cold War coincided with transitions to democracy in Brazil and the Southern Cone, and the peaceful resolution of armed conflict in Central America. These developments, along with the intensification of globalization processes worldwide, inaugurated a hopeful era of “democratic peace” or “no war” suggesting a decreasing importance for traditional security matters. Although a series of bilateral border disputes continue to simmer in the region, the most intransient ones have been resolved. Indeed, since the 1995 war between Peru and Ecuador, interstate conflict has been all but erased, and military competition has been reduced dramatically. With the exception of Colombia's entrenched civil war and Haiti's faltering state, internal conflicts characterized by significant episodes of political violence have also become a distant memory.
Topic:
Security and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Brazil, Colombia, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, Haiti, Peru, and Ecuador

123. Great Expectations: Mexico's Short-lived Convergence under NAFTA

Author:
Carol Wise
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Upon Mexico's entry into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), neo-classical trade theory assumed, first, that it had the greatest potential for higher rates of growth, productivity and overall welfare gains due to its relatively underdeveloped status; and second, that Mexico's adjustment to an integrated, liberal economy would be the most painful but also the most beneficial. It was envisioned that the blending of Mexico's endowment factors – cheap labour, natural resources, and proximity to the US market – with the abundant capital and advanced technology of Canada and the US would maximize on NAFTA's competitive potential over the long-term. However, these expectations have yet to fully materialize. This paper reviews the convergence/divergence debate with regard to NAFTA and Mexico, and analyzes the empirical data that have been used to tout both the benefits and the costs of asymmetrical integration. In light of the standstill in Mexico's per capita growth since 2001, this paper concludes with a critique of the potential role of NAFTA as a development tool and argues that the steep regional asymmetries call for a more proactive continental strategy.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Markets
Political Geography:
America, Central America, and Mexico

124. Consequences of an Emerging China: Is Development Space Disappearing for Latin America and the Caribbean?

Author:
Nicola Phillips
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The economic rise of China has caused a redrawing of global production and value chains, a restructuring of the global division of labour, and a restructuring of patterns of global demand and of the terms of trade. This paper examines the nature of the emerging economic relationship between Latin America and the Caribbean and China, and seeks to offer some reflections on the significance of this relationship for Latin American and Caribbean development. It begins with an overview of trade and investment relationships between Latin American countries and China, and examines the significance of the emergence of China for the region's development strategies and developmental prospects in greater detail. This paper reflects on the early impact of these emerging arrangements on the existing economic relationship between Latin America and the United States, and seeks in some ways to challenge understandings of this sort based on national economies and instead argues for a focus on global production and value chains, as well the new transnational division of labour.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
United States, China, America, Asia, Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean

125. Solving Our Immigration Problem: From Controversy to Consensus

Author:
Roger F. Noriega and Megan Davy
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The thorny issue of immigration may yet prove to be a winner for President George W. Bush, but he has to gamble that leaders from both parties are more interested in solving this problem than in saving the debate for the 2008 campaign. The Bush administration can be faulted for failing to put more security resources at our borders after the terrorist attacks of September 11 and for not advancing the president's comprehensive immigration reform before the debate was dominated by shrill voices. President Bush's approach on immigration, however, remains a sound one, and his declarations during his March visit to Mexico indicate a dogged desire to tackle this issue. A Democratic Congress may find that it needs to demonstrate its ability to find practical, bipartisan solutions to even the toughest of problems.
Topic:
International Relations and Migration
Political Geography:
United States, Central America, and Mexico

126. Let Cuba Be Cuban Again

Author:
Robert F. Noriega
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
As Fidel Castro shuffles off the world stage, many non-Cubans are pondering the future of a nation that has spent nearly fifty years trapped under the rubble of the dictator's demented experiment. Too many outsiders, however, are disoriented by the myths that the regime has spun over the past five decades to make the island seem complicated, bedeviled, dangerous, and unapproachable. Castro realized that if the world came to comprehend Cuban reality, then even the intelligentsia might notice something wrong with the way he ran the place.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Cuba and Central America

127. Transborder movements Mexico-United States: “Polleros” as mobility agents

Author:
Gaxiola y Guajardo García
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
The human traffic networks of Latin-Americans immigrants, managed by human traffickers or “polleros”, constitute an actual social phenomenon that affects the security structures in all borders of the American continent. The objective of this research is to analyze how the impact that problems, like uneven distribution of income and the lack of job opportunities in Latin America, affect the raising of human traffic networks and “polleros”. At the same time, it will be exposed the abuses that the “polleros” commit against the immigrants, and several measures that have been adopted in the international level to eradicate this problem.
Topic:
International Relations and Migration
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, Central America, North America, and Mexico

128. In the multicultural edge: A linguistic political evaluation of the Mexican State around its indigenous communities

Author:
Roberto Morris Bermúdez
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
The goal of this dissertation is to assess to what extent Mexican language policy towards indigenous minorities is congruent with the guidelines that multicultural, language policy and language planning theory prescribe. These theories were chosen because current legislation indicates that these are the ideals which Mexico, as a country, The aim of this research is to present a comparison of current Mexican multicultural language policies and how these diverge from multicultural theory, this in order to make inferences applicable to further developing multicultural language policies in Mexico.
Topic:
Civil Society, Demographics, and Government
Political Geography:
Central America and Mexico

129. Unauthorized Migrants in the United States

Author:
Jeffrey Passel
Publication Date:
09-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
This report discusses methods of measuring unauthorized migration to the United States. The “residual method” involves comparing an analytic estimate of the legal foreign-born population with a survey-based measure of the total foreign-born population. The difference between the two population figures is a measure of the unauthorized migrant population in the survey; it can then be corrected for omissions to provide a measure of the total unauthorized population. The report includes a detailed description of the residual methods and the underlying data and assumptions as it has been applied to recent data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and decennial censuses. The paper presents new results of estimates derived from the march 2006 CPS which show that the unauthorized population in the U.S. has reached 11.5 million; of these, 6.5 million or 57% are from Mexico. The report also presents derived data on a range of social and economic characteristics of the unauthorized population developed with an extension of the residual estimates. Finally, historical data on trends in unauthorized migration and several alternative estimation methods are presented and discussed.
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Immigration, Border Control, and Socioeconomics
Political Geography:
United States, Central America, North America, and Mexico

130. Exploding Crime? Topic Management in Central American Newspapers

Author:
Anika Oettler, Peetz. Peter, and Sebastien Huhn
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
It has become common to state that criminal violence has superseded political violence in Central America. This paper presents the first results of a research project which analyses the social construction of violent realities in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The authors describe the print media landscape in Central America and examine both the quality of leading newspapers and the main clusters of topics constituting the news discourse on violence. The analysis of the macro-structure of topic management in Central American newspapers allows to differentiate the “talk of crime”: it is more heterogeneous than often thought. There are signs that the problem of juvenile delinquency is emerging as the center of a cross-country discourse on “ordinary violence”. On the other hand, the talk of crime is centered around few topic clusters, with sexual violence and border-related discourse on violence being of key importance. Finally, the paper points to a heterogeneous array of discourse events that is connected to political developments and power-relations.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, and Crime
Political Geography:
Central America, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador