The drug war in Mexico is entering its fourth year as of 2011. The level of violence has spread throughout Mexico raising doubts as to Mexico's ability to win and assert its State authority. The violence in the Northern part of Mexico causes...
In 1969, President Nixon started the now well-known "War on Drugs." The reason behind his "declaration" of war was the increasing national security threat posed by the transnational drug trafficking organizations. With the aim of making as much...
Drug Trafficking Organizations within Mexico have become a challenge to the state and are affecting both Mexican and U.S. citizens within the U.S. and Mexico border region. As the situation continues to spiral out of control, the U.S. military,...
Since Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared war on the drug cartels in December 2006, more than 35,000 Mexicans have died due to narco-violence. This monograph examines whether the various Mexican drug trafficking organizations are insurgents...
The increasing volume and manner of violent deaths in Mexico nearly doubled in 2009 to just over seven thousand. Mexico appears capable of devolving into a failed state status where an insurgency threat could potentially thrive. These indices...
This paper argues that to counter border spillover violence, America must control the border with Mexico and generate the public and political commitment to do so. This study applies a military problem solving methodology to identify how best to...
The security of the U.S.-Mexican border is an issue of considerable interest for both countries. The North American Free Trade Agreement has created a web of symbiotic links between the two countries. Unfortunately, this has also presented...
This monograph posits that the state must structure the delivery of public goods in a sequential and hierarchical basis with safety and security and rule of law providing a foundation upon which the state builds delivery of all other public goods...
Since 2007, when President Felipe Calderon declared his government's war on the drug trafficking organizations operating in his country, the level of narcotics related violence has increased dramatically. The violence, which had been largely...
The construction of a US-Mexico border fence has proved an increasingly divisive method for securing the southern US border since its initial construction as the San Diego Fence in 1990. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the...
Arthur D. Simons Center for Interagency Cooperation
This study is the result of several months of academic research by a group of mid-career professionals participating in an alternative educational program with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) that focused on issues related to...
With the U.S. high domestic consumption of illicit drugs, a relationship has formed between transnational gangs and powerful Latin American drug cartels. The ineffectiveness of the war on drugs, along with the high cost of such a program, begs the...
The Texas Revolution was the result of the steady spread of republicanism in North America. The proliferation of Anglo-American immigrants across the continent naturally led to conflict as these fiercely independent people encountered an...
Two centuries of philosophy and war have informed the latest evolution of the definitions of strategy and operational art defined in the Department of Defense's Joint Publication 1-02. By harmonizing the relationship between strategy and...
The topic of civil-military relations during the Mexican War resurfaces as an interesting historical study in the aftermath of President Obama's recent decision to relieve General McChrystal of command in Afghanistan. This review of U.S....
Colonel Edward Hatch, Commander 9th Cavalry Regiment, following the resolution of a 1877 uprising in San Elizario, Texas, submitted a report to the Secretary of War. His concluding statement suggested that the existence of Fort Bliss, as a...
The current layered and bifurcated approach to homeland security and defense is insufficient for combating future threats to the nation. This monograph describes a new approach to homeland security and defense. Broadly speaking, this new approach,...
Introduction By Dan G. Cox and Thomas Bruscino
Failed State: A New (Old) Definition By Major Kenneth D. Mitchell Toward Development of Afghanistan National Stability: Analyses in Historical, Military, and Cultural Contexts By Lieutenant Colonel...
The relationship that developed between the military and the media during the Mexican War is the primary focus of this thesis. This paper looks at the media’s coverage of the war from 1846 to 1848, spotlighting a comparison and contrast of the...