On June 26-28, six CHDS faculty and staff participated in the Armed Forces & Society Conference held in Santiago, Chile, by the Research Committee (RC 24) of International Political Science Association. The conference, one of the more visible and noteworthy conferences on security and defense in Latin America this year, was heavily attended by the senior defense leadership from Chile, and included opening remarks from Defense Minister Jose Goni and Chilean Army Commander General Oscar Izurrieta.

CHDS Director, Dr. Richard D. Downie and Dr. Oswaldo Jarrin, ministry of defense chair and professor of national security affairs, participated in the panel “Fuerzas Armadas, Gobierno y Sociedad Civil,” (Armed Forces, Government, and CIvil Society) and delivered papers on “Civil-Military Integration vs. Civil Control: The Changing Context of Security and Effective Governance,” and “Paradigma Confrontacional del Control Político frente a los nuevos dilemas de la Seguridad,” (The Confrontational Paradigm of Political Control Before New Security Dilemmas) respectively. The Center strategic communications chief, historian Martin Edwin Andersen, participated in the panel “Crime and (In)security in Latin America: Challenging Conventional Civil-Military Relations,” and delivered the paper, “Posse Comitatus For Export? Some Considerations on Transforming the Role of Latin American Militaries in the 21st Century.”

Dr. Jarrin also joined CHDS professors, Dr.Jaime Garcia, and Mr. Guillermo Pacheco, on the panel “La Evolución de las Relaciones Político-Militares en Latinoamérica: Una Perspectiva Subregional,” (The Evolution of Political-Military Relations in Latin America: A Subregional Perspective) and each delivered a paper related to the panel topic. Dr. Garcia, Dr. Craig Deare, and Dr. Ivan Witker, a former CHDS visiting scholar from Chile participated in the panel “Políticas de Defensa Estadounidenses hacia América Latina,” (United States Defense Policies Toward Latin America) and delivered the following papers (respectively): “La Transformación Militar de los EEUU y su Evolución hacia la Estabilización y Reconstrucción” (The United States Military Transformation and Its Evolution Toward Stability and Reconstruction), “Como Mejorar la Política de Defensa Estadounidense hacia América Latina” (How to Improve US Defense Policy Toward Latin America); and “Irrelevancia versus Centralidad: Algunos Aspectos de la Política Exterior y de Defensa Estadounidense vistos desde América Latina” (Irrelevancy versus Centrality: A Few Aspects of US Foreign and Defense Policy as Seen From Latin America). Deare’s presentation, which suggested ways to upgrade the Western Hemisphere portfolio at the Department of Defense to provide greater attention and resources to future challenges and opportunities in the region, received favorable comment from a number of conference attendees.

Ricardo Israel, the conference chair, praised the CHDS delegation’s participation. “The high quality of the several presentations given by the CHDS faculty reaffirmed its place as a hemispheric leader in the academic study of and research on defense and security issues. The fact that such an important number of CHDS people participated contributed greatly to the success of the event.”

The CHDS academic team was joined at the event by Dr. Thomas C. Bruneau, a professor of national security affairs in the Naval Postgraduate School’s Department of National Security Affairs, and his colleague Dr. Harold Trinkunas, chair and associate professor at the department.