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...
The goal of the United States (U.S.) government is to use a whole of government approach to stability operations in countries around the world. Promoting stability reduces the threat of terrorism and secures the safety and welfare of U.S....
Within the context of the current US government endeavor to unify its actions and build partner-nation military capabilities in the Global War on Terror (GWOT), this monograph seeks to determine the potential value of utilizing expeditionary...
Since 2006, more than 30,000 Mexican citizens have died in drug-related violence. With the threat of this violence escalating and spilling across the border into the United States, it is necessary to employ the full range of assets and options...
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...
Military support to law enforcement agencies is a key piece of solving the problem that exists along the southwestern border. Military support along the southwestern border has existed since the initial westward expansion of the United States....
The United States Army faces significant budget cuts as the national debt rises and combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan end. Budgets cuts will decrease funding for training across the operational force as the Army moves to train for...
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...
The creation of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2003 was a monumental, yet incomplete organizational step towards integrating border protection operations. Customs and Border Protection is constantly improving integration and unity of...
As the United States (U.S.) establishes better control of the border, traffickers and smugglers continue to develop advanced methods and employ new tactics to counter enforcement technology. Investigating how emerging technologies in aerial...
This monograph examines the role which the United States Army can play in counter-drug operations. First, the current drug threat to the United States is analyzed for vulnerability to American military action. Areas where drugs can be attacked are...
Violence perpetrated by Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) increased dramatically in 2006 and continued to rise dramatically through early 2009. During this same period, Mexican DTO infiltration of U.S. cities skyrocketed. The increase...
When President Woodrow Wilson ordered approximately 150,000 National Guardsmen to the southern border in 1916, the United States was on the verge of all-out war with Mexico. The rapid mobilization and deployment of the Guard forces broke the rapid...
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,...
As geographic neighbors, the United States and Mexico have experienced varying tension ever since each country was colonized, gained independence, and solidified its boundaries. Between the American Civil War and World War I, the U.S. Army...
The United States must revise and fully implement its homeland defense strategy, in particular, at the Southwest border. The nation's security strategy and defense doctrine now recognize a broader range of threats not only to the national security...
Group Thesis: Despite billions of dollars in expenditures and current government policy, our nation's borders remain unprotected and the US Military should assume an expanded role in their protection.
At the U.S. southwest border there exists the intersection of two distinct cultures, economies, political systems, and ideas of what comprises the national security interests of the U.S. and Mexico. Those security interests stem from a desire to...
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...