This paper was presented at the Fundación Ciudadanía y Valores (FUNCIVA) in Madrid, Spain, February 11, 2010.
Read more
This essay explores the more than 230-year-long development of the military justice system of the United States, a process that began even before the country's constitution was written. It examines the contributions to the jurisprudence of other countries made by the justice system of the U.S. armed forces and looks at some of the most important controversies accompanying its development. It also presents some of the contemporary issues facing both the U.S. military and civil society in the early 21st century, as the United States conducts actions against hostile non-state actors who threaten both the security and human rights of democracies around the world.
Read more
The spread of such transnational gangs as Mara Salvatrucha presents an ongoing threat to the security and stability of Central America. These gangs have proven remarkably adaptive, moving up the ladder of criminal enterprises since their inception in the late 1980s in Southern California. The model of the "three generations" of gangs has provided a clear picture of their past and given a glimpse into their future operations. This model combined with the increasing influence of the Mexican Cartels, the globalization of the Maras, and the new sophistication of Maras modus operandi demonstrate an even more dangerous threat to regional security: the possibility of increasingly sophisticated and cohesive Maras becoming more closely allied with the Mexican Cartels, or perhaps developing their own Cartel-like system in Central America.
Read more
Two events in 2008 brought about substantial changes in the international system: the Russian invasion of Georgia and the international financial crisis, both of which highlighted the powerlessness of international institutions to deal with such events. The war in Georgia made it clear that unilateral US measures, including an American deployment in traditionally Russian zones of influence, revitalized the country's relations with the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in order to propose a regional vision on international security issues. On the other hand, the financial crisis originating in the United States has had repercussions on the world economy, causing, among other things, the volatility of international commodity prices and the retraction of investments in emerging economies. Governments are trying to apply corrective measures ad intra while seeking, externally, to create conditions to stabilize the financial situation from a cooperative perspective. In this context, American hegemony without the multilateralist complement, which means having international legitimacy, is an invitation to generate strategic counterweights. From the perspective of critical realism of geostrategic unilateralism, such as that of the Iraq war, could argue that if the world is to be governed, multilateralism is the way to go.
Read more
Strategic communications is a key means of gaining acceptance of one's ideas, policies or courses of action. As such it plays a critical role in helping the United States to reinforce understanding of its values and culture — including support for its ideas, policies and courses of action — both within its war-fighting establishment and by the rest of the world. This article examines the historical actions of military chaplains to shed light on a critical aspect of their work; their ministries as strategic communications platforms from which they carry out a pastoral role while offering, as valued members of the military inner circle, religious, moral, spiritual and ethical advice to leadership, both at the strategic and tactical levels. It examines the role of the American military chaplaincy as a strategic communications phenomenon that predates the concept itself. A buzzword emanating from the 1990s that gained even greater currency in the September 11, 2001 global "war of ideas" — "strategic communications" might appear to be a new concept. Yet for centuries military chaplains have labored as strategic communicators in an effort to win support within the armed forces for their countries' national policy and doctrine.
Read more
This essay analyzes the relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Colombia in the strategic context of the region. It begins with an analysis of why growing relations between China and the region are a key security and defense issue, despite the mainly economic nature of the relationship. It continues with an analysis of China's strategic interests in Colombia within the framework of general interests in the region, which include access to primary products, access to markets, isolating Taiwan, and fostering a secure environment for China's rise in the world. He concludes that relations between Colombia and the People's Republic of China in recent years have been primarily commercial in nature, with multiple strategic implications for Colombia, including the evolution of its trade structure, the increase in human trafficking, and the indirect empowerment of irregular forces and external threats in its neighborhood, and that China-Colombia-US relations should be understood as a triangle in which the development of one party impacts the others, but with opportunities to collaborate, including defense and criminality issues that involve the entire region.
Read more
