The article analyzes interdependency levels in security affairs, pointing out that the best accomplishments have been carried out in South America, such as multinational cooperation in the UN mission in Haiti. It is also pointed out that, regarding security and defense in North America, there are plenty of obstacles meant to be overcome by means of implementing the Merida Initiative for México and Central America. In the case of Andean countries-at present, the most conflictive region in the hemisphere-actual steps backwards have occurred, increasing geopolitical and border tensions among its members. The paper concludes that at present, the paradigm between security and integration must not be mutually exclusive. It faces growing challenges which demand the creation of institutions that are able to deal with them.
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The impact of new challenges in security and defense has made it clear that there is a need to establish measures of mutual trust between countries and within those countries themselves. In the mid-1990s, several countries in Latin America addressed this need, publishing their Defense White Papers, in which they stated their positions on the subject of Defense. Central American countries, after ending their internal armed conflicts, began a process of reconciliation, which included the subject of the relationship between armed forces and society. Consequently, the White Papers in these countries, more than just being instruments for implementing measures of trust with neighboring countries, served to establish these measures among the various sectors of society, indicating that the process of political leadership required changes in order to be compatible with existing determinants. This article describes these initial processes in each of the countries and how, from different perspectives, they achieved progress in political-military relations, although with a certain degree of military influence predominating.
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This analysis goes into detail on the situation and reflects on three fundamental factors. The first is an abstraction regarding the new threats, and the definition, perception and impact of such on the societies involved. The second relates to the mission that the various Latin American constitutions assign to Armed Forces and police personnel. The third and last is the model adopted by the EU, and offers a critique of the Central American Framework Treaty on Security, with two extreme poles in the focus that we have undertaken. It ends with a series of conclusions that could serve for reflection or guidelines for at last characterizing the role of Latin American Armed Forces in the fight against the new threats.
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The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the policy of Ad Hoc alliances or "coalitions of the willing" in the Bush administration in connection with the war on terrorism. The emergence of such represents an international-level policy designed to effectively combat the threats that disturb the global scenario as a whole, but that also generate divisions within the international community at the time that they are defined and, therefore, create dissension when it comes time to consider the best way to combat them. This paper concludes that Latin America should move toward participating and extending its participation in coalitions of the willing, due to the fact that permanent regional multilateral efforts are difficult to achieve, because of the wide scope of the existing threats and because of the increasing polarization existing in the region regarding the US
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This paper focused on the origin, structure and roles of the military of Belize, an arm of the state of the only English-speaking country in Central America. The key tasks that were undertaken by the Belize’s military were both external and internal. It is shown that Belize is the only country of the English-speaking Caribbean in which armed forces are used primarily for defense. This is so to deter the Guatemalan army from marching into Belize and to control the infiltration of its borders by illegal immigrants. However, Belize’s military has become increasingly involved in "police" operations, including the combating of drugs and maintaining domestic order, thus leading to a blurring of the roles of the police and the military, as well as the provision of relief during natural and other disasters. Finally, Belize’s military engaged in self-help programs and provided assistance to a number of civilian projects as a way of fostering improved civil-military relations.
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The article was written by one of the individuals directly involved in drawing up the 1995 Framework Treaty on Democratic Security in Central America and in its enforcement, who was a main player in the historic circumstances that led to this treaty. The article is primarily intended to show the contribution made by this ambitious instrument to the new multidimensional model of hemispheric security that the Organization of American States (OAS) has been developing and which was successfully expressed in the OAS Special Conference on Security, held in Mexico City, Mexico on October 27-28, 2003, where this contribution made by Central America was widely recognized.
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