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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The essay examines the impact of military assistance on the levels of state violence against civilians during civil wars. Azam and Hoeffler argue that outside funding raises the levels of counterinsurgent brutality. This essay claims that this may be true for development assistance, but not for military aid. Using data from Peru and El Salvador, it is suggested that military aid may sometimes be inversely related to the levels of violence against civilians. This is explained by two factors. First, development aid only increases the funding of brutal regimes, whereas military assistance can also induce them to abandon brutality. Second, while traditional military aid programmes have been driven mostly by strategic concerns, those implemented in Peru and El Salvador also incorporated human rights considerations.
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The attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001 changed dramatically the dynamic and nature of North American relations, igniting interest in closer cooperation among the three countries, especially on issues relating to security, border patrol and immigration. This renewed interest in strengthening collaboration in North America has crystallized into a call for the establishment of a "North American Security Perimeter." The three North American countries have taken several significant steps to strengthen collaboration on security matters. In effect, security cooperation within the continent has never been as strong, and it has in fact been institutionalized between Mexico and the US on some levels. Nonetheless, despite this new level of continental security cooperation, this article advances the argument that we are still far from the establishment of an international regime that would resemble anything close to a security perimeter. Instead, it is argued that what we are witnessing is the emergence of an informal North American security system that has unfolded along the two traditional axes that have historically characterized North American relations: the US-Canada relationship and the US-Mexico relationship.
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This article studies from a historical perspective the Colombian participation in the Korean War between 1950 and 1954. It seeks to show some historic elements of subordination of Colombian Armed Forces respect to the representative State regarding it use of the troops in U.N. multinational operations. This text is divided in four parts. In first place, I analyze the most important aspects of the Colombian Armed Forces and your relation with the State. In second place, I show the principals' elements of the conformation of Colombian Battalion. In the third part, I study the high commitment of the Colombian troops with the UN and US military objectives. At the last part, I discuss the political and military implications of the Colombian participation in the Korean War. This text is based on military's memoirs, interviews and academic literature.
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South America, and the Andean region in particular, do not constitute a military or economic threat to the United States, but they are a potential setting for a pax Mafiosa, a tendency toward chaos and disorder. The process taking place in the Andean region is characterized by unstable states (Bolivia, Ecuador), seriously damaged sovereign states (Colombia), damaged democratic regimes (Venezuela) and higher levels of militarization (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru). In addition to inter-state tensions (Venezuela-Colombia, Chile-Bolivia) there are growing transnational security situations (drug trafficking, money-laundering and guerrilla warfare) and social conflicts that arise not only from economic but from identity factors as well. At this juncture, we should reflect on the possibility that Argentina, Brazil in particular and the region in general may find in this list of challenges to citizen and to national security a true opportunity for a converging of viewpoints and a development of policies to endow MERCOSUR with greater substance and identity in political and security matters.
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The document presents a study of how many components of the process of change in the United States of America can influence or come to have an influence on operational compatibility between the Argentina Navy and the US Navy within the medium term, in accordance with the leadership guidelines, and believing that it could serve as a foundation for a series of discussion meetings on this issue. The "joint" setting is a vital component in the following analysis, as it is one of the conceptual bases of the aforementioned change.
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the principles that underlie the creation of an Inter-American System for Cooperation in Security and Defense Matters that would be utilized to respond to the new threats facing the hemisphere. The paper reviews the theoretical background of international regulations and of the Rio Treaty with a view to determining whether there is a current Inter-American system for cooperation in defense-related matters, or whether there is no such system and efforts need to be made in order to create it.
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