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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The current context is characterized by the increasing demand for "time necessary" for administering organizations and the limited supply of "time available." This relationship requires proper time management on middle and high levels of administration, particularly within complex organizations. Time management is an art, which, based on correct decision-making, needs competent individuals who are able to deal with their responsibilities. Properly-planned continuing education favors this process and promotes a virtuous circle for successfully finding the solution to unstructured problems.
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The paper analyses the roles and functions of the military and civilian police and comes to the conclusion that either the disbanding or amalgamation of the military in small developing countries would denude the state's capability of providing a stable National Security environment. It suggests that transformation of the military to be more relevant to the developing economies is more appropriate. The link of the hemispheric threats of the nation states of the Caribbean, to National Security and the differing roles of the police and military services is investigated and it is argued that the concomitancy of appropriate training to functions is critical and herein lies one of the major impediments to amalgamation. The paper argues that discipline is the foundation of military combat readiness and combat effectiveness and is more important in today's complex security environment of asymmetric threats from non-state actors where the "release aggression, restrain excess" paradox is most relevant.
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Up to now there has been no multinational or joint doctrine in Latin America for the participation of its armed forces in United Nations peacekeeping operations. However, most of the countries are actively participating in peacekeeping operations, as part of multinational contingents, such as the MINUSTAH. As the result of this situation, there has arisen a need for developing a common doctrine for the employment of military and police forces and civil contingents in this type of operation. This article presents a brief description of the three existing doctrinal models: UN, NATO and USA, with a critical analysis of the challenges that arise in generating a unique model adapted to Latin American realities.
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In Latin America, the purchase of military equipment has experienced increasing complexity and difficulty, due to the dizzying technological advances that have been incorporated into the means of war. Because of the complexity and sophistication of equipment and materials, we are dealing with an integrated arms system that must necessarily interact with other systems. The greater amount of technology that has been incorporated makes it possible to increase the lethal capacity of arms systems and, therefore, increase the military capacity of a military force. In addition, this greater sophistication has increased, all the more, the technological gap between industrialized countries and developing countries, such as in Latin America, where the process of purchasing such equipment is more common. Faced with this situation, the most likely materiel to be purchased must be meticulously evaluated and analyzed, in order to prevent inefficiencies and fruitless expenditures, since funds are always scarce. This is the reason why it is so important to structure efficient methodologies, in order to evaluate the technical effectiveness of arms systems and the costs associated with them.
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This presentation analyzes the subject of secession, establishing its characteristics and proposing, as a hypothesis, that these theoretical considerations could be taking shape in the Bolivian reality of today. The author makes a qualitative assessment of the country's most serious problems as a function of the aforementioned hypothesis. The presentation seeks to identify the underground forces undermining territorial cohesion in Latin America today, and emphasizes ethnoindigenism as an explanatory variable. The author utilizes historical examples of secessions in other parts of Latin America, and in Bolivia itself, with the idea of establishing similarities and differences with the case under study. The objective is to demonstrate that centrifugal dynamics have already taken shape, which are currently having repercussions on the stability and governability of this regional space and which, put into a comparative perspective with empirical evidence, could be irreversible in nature.
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We note that an increase in transnational drug trafficking activity, through the Mexican cartels, is threatening, to varying degrees, the national security of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. As a result of this, in Andean subregional security policy, with the support of the United States, a new multilateral antidrug strategy must be formulated that can successfully confront the new levels of drug trafficking and criminal violence practiced by stateless transnational players, such as the Mexican cartels in the Andean region.
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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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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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The explicit objective of this work is to make some contributions toward assessing the current situation, and taking a look at the future, of the MERCOSUR, with regard to Defense, based on an historical-theoretical and practical development, starting from the premise that shows that the strengthening of cooperative action, with a view toward developing an integrated Defense system in the region, would be the most appropriate response to the challenges that have been posed in the field of International Security.
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