Global warming presents one of the most serious threats to South American nations. Countries in the region are at risk of a variety of climate change related problems: rising sea levels, diminishing potable water supplies, forest fres, intense storms and fooding, heat waves and the spread of diseases. These disasters are occurring more frequently in the region and will likely increase in intensity also. The armed forces in the region are the only government departments with both the capacity and the manpower to respond to these massive catastrophes. Military support to civilian authorities will be required more frequently and under more severe conditions as climate change conditions worsen.
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As part of the commands' annual posture statements to Congress, General John Kelly of SOUTHCOM and General Charles Jacoby, Jr. of NORTHCOM presented their goals and concerns in testimony before the House and Senate Armed Service Committees on February 26, 2014 and March 13, 2014, respectively. The Perry Center, as one of the Hemisphere's premier venues for security and defense education and outreach, plays a pivotal role in carrying out both NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM's priorities throughout the year. The following summaries of Gen. Kelly's and Gen. Jacoby's 2014 posture statements provide insight into the key concerns and objectives for the Western Hemisphere regional commands over the course of the year.
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The Inter-American Defense System can be analyzed as regional security governance, in which mechanisms and practices of different levels and scopes coexist and overlap in time, space and function. The objective of this article is to study how this overlapping has affected the provision of security in successive historical contexts and what is the current situation, based on a functional approach. To this end, the performance of mechanisms related to collective security (56 conflicts) and cooperative security (5 issues) will be examined, identifying the dynamics between the different levels. This analysis will lead to the conclusion that, since the creation of UNASUR, the overlapping of mechanisms has shifted from a cooperative interaction to a complex one, in which competitive tendencies are reinforced. Based on this, the design of a better articulated governance that reflects the leading role of the regions as providers of security within the hemispheric system is proposed.
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Peace operations are pragmatic responses by the international community to a situation that threatens or undermines international peace and security. Although the charter of the United Nations does not make reference to peace operations, they are covered by chapters VI, VII, and VIII of that treaty. The organization also uses, as a theoretical basis for the treatment of the theme, mainly, the documents An Agenda for Peace and its Peace and its Supplement, which were presented by the then Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1992 and 1995, respectively. Since 1947, more than since 1947, more than a million military, police, and civilians have served in the 67 peacekeeping missions peacekeeping missions. South American countries, especially Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, have South American countries, especially Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, have had a significant presence in these operations. This paper presents a descriptive account of the participation of South American countries in UN peacekeeping in United Nations peacekeeping operations and the legal provisions that govern their participation. In conclusion, it presents some considerations on the experience accumulated by the countries of the region, leading the reasoning to the importance of joint participation in these operations.
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This academic paper provides an analysis of the regional concerns and challenges presented in the Declaration of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as a result of the IX Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CDMA) held in Bolivia in 2010. It focuses on the importance of cooperation in defense and security matters in the region, specifically in the advancement of the implementation of measures of confidence promotion and security recently approved by the South American Defense Council (SDC) of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
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The objective of this research is to answer the question: How much progress have South American countries made in the implementation of equal opportunity policies within the Armed Forces? To this end, the study was approached from the perspective of gender equity, reviewing the state of the question through the increase in the incorporation of women into military institutions in the region. However, a historical-quantitative analysis is insufficient for this approach. For this purpose, it was complemented with a qualitative analysis that allows us to analyze specific public policies applied in this field to generate equal opportunities and to visualize the situation of women within military institutions in South America. Finally, it is necessary to clarify that the field of study of the South American countries chosen excludes Suriname, Guyana and French Guyana because it is understood that their cultural and historical identification with the region has been scarce or even nonexistent if we approach it from the specific field of defense.
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In South America, attempts to establish a new institutional framework for intelligence are constantly being made. Probably together with the serious shortcomings of the police forces, the structuring of professional intelligence services is one of the pending issues in the democratic consolidation of security in the region. Most of these organizations are headed by military and police officers, although the number of civilian employees is increasing. Two very different groups of countries can be identified. On the one hand, there are those with old and consolidated organizations, at least in appearance, although not necessarily legitimized (SIDE in Argentina, ABIN in Brazil and DAS in Colombia). On the other hand, there are a number of countries with intelligence services in gestation and in search of legitimacy and professionalism. This is the case of ANI in Chile and DINI in Peru, while the governments of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela are trying to establish, through legislative reforms, completely new intelligence organizations. In any case, the lack of professionalism, the use of bad practices -- often through the political use of the services, and, in some cases, the low level of efficiency and success, as well as the persistence of internal struggles for power, influence and resources among civilians, military and police -- persist.
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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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This paper analyzes the process of integration designed by the Presidents of the Republic of Cuba and Venezuela, based on the doctrinaire socialist ideology of the two leaders, through the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement, aimed at promoting and fomenting the progress of their respective economies and obtaining reciprocal advantages, and of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which agreement expands on and modifies the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement. It constitutes an alliance whose purpose is to establish Latin American-Caribbean leadership through international cooperation in various sectors, and to change the correlation of international forces, establishing a multipolar world and creating a new international political order in which the interest of the people prevails. With this purpose in mind, the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean and their position as a swing vote in international decision-making, which will make them sovereign in their decisions and masters of their own fate, is being sought. In addition, substituting products from the region for products from outside countries, and the use of petroleum as a negotiating tool, is proposed.
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