The Handbook of Latin American and Caribbean Intelligence Cultures

The Handbook of Latin American and Caribbean Intelligence Cultures
Author: Florina Cristiana Matei
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2022-06-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 153816082X

The Handbook of Latin American and Caribbean Intelligence Cultures explores the contemporary efforts of Latin American and Caribbean nations to develop an intelligence culture. Specifically, it analyzes these countries’ efforts to democratize their intelligence agencies (i.e. to develop intelligence services that are both transparent and effective) to convert the former military regimes’ repressive security apparatuses into democratic intelligence communities—a rather paradoxical task, considering that democracy calls for political neutrality, transparency, and accountability, while effective intelligence services must operate in secrecy. Indeed, even the most successful democracies face this conundrum of democracy and intelligence; Latin America and the Caribbean region is not alone in facing this challenge. The legacy of the repressive military regimes or brutal civil wars—which have inspired in the public a general disdain toward intelligence services due to the grave human rights abuses—coupled with politicians’ persistent lack of interest or expertise in intelligence matters complicate the region’s quest for a proper balance between the competing demands of democracy and intelligence. This volume details the attempts of the region’s countries to overcome these obstacles and pursue democratic intelligence institution building—transforming the legal basis for intelligence; establishing democratic control and oversight mechanisms; and fostering intelligence openness, transparency, and outreach.

Megaregulation Contested

Megaregulation Contested
Author: Benedict Kingsbury
Publisher:
Total Pages: 753
Release: 2019
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0198825293

The Japan-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPPA) of 2018 is the most far-reaching 'megaregional' economic agreement in force, with several major countries beyond its eleven negotiating countries also interested. Still bearing the stamp of the original US involvement before the Trump-era reversal, TPP is the first instance of 'megaregulation': a demanding combination of inter-state economic ordering and national regulatory governance on a highly ambitious substantive and trans-regional scale. Its text and ambition have influenced other negotiations ranging from the Japan-EU Agreement (JEEPA) and the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to the projected Pan-Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This book provides an extensive analysis of TPP as a megaregulatory project for channelling and managing new pressures of globalization, and of core critical arguments made against economic megaregulation from standpoints of development, inequality, labour rights, environmental interests, corporate capture, and elite governance. Specialized chapters cover supply chains, digital economy, trade facilitation, intellectual property, currency levels, competition and state-owned enterprises, government procurement, investment, prescriptions for national regulation, and the TPP institutions. Country studies include detailed analyses of TPP-related politics and approaches in Japan, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. Contributors include leading practitioners and scholars in law, economics, and political science. At a time when the WTO and other global-scale institutions are struggling with economic nationalism and geopolitics, and bilateral and regional agreements are pressed by public disagreement and incompatibility with digital and capital and value chain flows, the megaregional ambition of TPP is increasingly important as a precedent requiring the close scrutiny this book presents.

North American Strategic Defense in the 21st Century:

North American Strategic Defense in the 21st Century:
Author: Christian Leuprecht
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2018-04-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319909789

The protection of the homeland is the top priority for U.S. national security strategy. Strategic defense, however, has been an overlooked dimension in the vast literature on the U.S. strategic posture, with even less attention given to the necessity and dynamics of security collaboration within North America. Drawing on the expertise of scholars from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, the book offers a wide range of perspectives on recent trends in, and future prospects for, the military and political evolution of North American strategic defense. North American strategic defense is a topic too often taken for granted: as this excellent book shows, that is a mistake. In the 21st century, perhaps even more than the 20th, it will be an issue of cardinal importance to both the United States and Canada. Eliot A. Cohen Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies NORAD’s binational command is unique, and this timely and ambitious book examines its continued relevance to North American defense against a host of new global threats. It broadens the focus of what we mean by North American defense, contemplates how we might include Mexico in various regional security arrangements, and considers the dynamics of expanded North American interdependence in the Trump era. Laura Dawson Director of the Canada Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars North American Strategic Defense in the 21st Century is an important book. This edited volume brings together a galaxy of stars, both rising and established, with outstanding credentials regarding NORAD and associated matter in the study of security. This original and well-written volume is the first of its kind since the Cold War – long overdue and impressive in contents. The chapters cover both panoramic issues and more specific matters, and the collection is essential reading for academics, policy-makers and the general public. Patrick James Dornsife Dean’s Professor, School of International Relations, University of Southern California

Urban Policy in Latin America

Urban Policy in Latin America
Author: Michael Cohen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2019-07-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429647999

This book evaluates the impact of 20 years of urban policies in six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. It argues that evaluating the fulfillment of past commitments is essential for framing and meeting the new commitments that were taken in Habitat III over the next 20 years. Taken as a whole, the book provides a critical assessment of the economic, social and environmental consequences of urban interventions during Habitat II. The country-level chapters have been written by recognized experts in urban issues, with first-hand knowledge of the Habitat process, and deep familiarity with the problems, statistics, actors and political contexts of their nations. The latter part of the volume considers wider topics such as the Habitat Commitment Index, the New Urban Agenda and the regional and global-scale lessons that can be extracted from this group of countries. Urban Policy in Latin America will be of interest to advanced students, researchers and policymakers across development economics, urban studies and Latin American studies.

Mexico and the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Mexico and the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Author: Rebecka Villanueva Ulfgard
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2017-03-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 113758582X

This book explores how and why Mexico’s approach to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation with the López Obrador administration is unsustainable and non-transformative, overshadowed by his vision of Mexico’s “Fourth Transformation”. Approached as a super mantra revolving around “Republican Austerity” and “First, the poor”, it provides original analysis of structural and conjunctural challenges facing Mexico as regards People-, Planet-, and Peace-centered development. The book reveals the promise “First, the poor” is inconsistent with data on Mexico’s poverty reduction (SDG1). Despite record-high spending on social programs and unmatched coverage, the recent tendency of improvement in tackling poverty is rather ambiguous from the perspective of multidimensional poverty. The book covers access to clean energy (SDG7), resilient infrastructure and sustainable industrialization (SDG9), and safeguarding biodiversity (SDG15) by examining three megaproject case studies: the oil refinery Dos Bocas, the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the Maya Train, generating concern with the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainable development. The prospects for an ‘enabling environment’ for SDG implementation are hampered by persistently high levels of homicides and impunity (SDG16). Turning Mexico’s Armed Forces into ‘first development partner of choice’ is problematized as regards their reach in infrastructure megaprojects and social welfare programs, in the overall context of the ‘de-risking state’ favoring private capital. The result, as determined by Villanueva Ulfgard, has led Mexico further astray from sustainable and transformative development.

The Cartels

The Cartels
Author: George W. Grayson Professor Emeritus
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2013-11-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 144082987X

An up-to-date examination of Mexico's version of the "War on Drugs" that exposes the evolution of major cartels and their corruption of politicians, law-enforcement agencies, and the Army. What can President Enrique Peña Nieto do to curb the narcotics-induced mayhem in Mexico, and what would be the consequences to the United States if he fails? This book analyzes Mexico's transition from a relatively peaceful kleptocracy controlled by the Tammany-Hall style Institutional Revolutionary Party/PRI (1929–2000) to a country plagued by rural and urban enclaves of grotesque violence. The author examines the major drug cartels and their success in infiltrating American and Mexican businesses; details the response from the Obama administration; assesses the threat that the continuing bloodshed represents for the United States; and emphasizes the constraints on America's ability to solve Mexico's crisis, despite U.S. contributions of intelligence, military equipment, training, and diplomatic support.

Adolescent Psychology in Today's World

Adolescent Psychology in Today's World
Author: Michael J. Nakkula
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 624
Release: 2018-11-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN:

This groundbreaking three-volume set spotlights how conditions around the world are affecting the healthy development of adolescents in their respective environments, on all six continents. Continually unstable or perpetually poor economic conditions, globalization, and rapid technological change are just three of the forces affecting a group 1.2 billion strong today, a demographic poised to become our world leaders and catalysts in the not-too-distant future: the world's adolescents. Led by two editors who have been dedicated to studying adolescent development worldwide for decades, this novel collection of works from contributors in more than 40 countries emphasizes how possibilities for healthy mental and physical development are affected by the difficulties youths face in their countries and how these challenges have shaped, and are shaping, contemporary teenage life today. The set comprehensively addresses issues for adolescents across the globe, such as the day-to-day challenges of poverty, inadequate education, violence or war, disease, reproductive matters, globalization and technological challenges, and more, while also providing a strengths-based focus in the volumes, showing how and why some teenagers in each country have surmounted the challenges and forged stronger characters to better their worlds. These stories document more than personal victories, and their experiences matter to far more than the adolescents themselves. In its State of the World's Children 2011 report, UNICEF noted that the world community needs to turn its attention to adolescents in need, explaining that focusing on this large and potentially powerful group makes economic sense as well as being a necessary step in working towards achieving human justice. By addressing the risks, challenges, and strengths of teenagers as a group in countries worldwide, this work serves to break the cycle of poverty, violence, discrimination, and death for adolescents.

Managing Innovation in Highly Restrictive Environments

Managing Innovation in Highly Restrictive Environments
Author: Guillermo Cortés-Robles
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2018-07-05
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319937162

This book presents the integration of new tools, the modification of existing tools, and the combination of different tools and approaches to create new technical resources for assisting the innovation process. It describes the efforts deployed for assisting the transformation of Product-Services Systems and explains the main key success factors or drivers for success of each tool or approach applied to solve an innovation problems. The book presents a set of case studies to illustrate the application of several tools and approaches, mainly in developing countries.

China, The United States, and the Future of Latin America

China, The United States, and the Future of Latin America
Author: David Denoon
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2017-10-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1479899283

Provides insight into U.S. and Chinese involvement in aid, trade, direct investment and strategic ties in Latin America In recent years, China has become the largest trading partner for more than half the countries in Latin America, and demonstrated major commitments in aid and direct investment in various parts of the region. China has also made a number of strategic commitments to countries like Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela which have long-standing policies opposing U.S. influence in the region. China, the United States, and the Future of Latin America posits that this activity is a direct challenge to the role of the U.S. in Latin America and the Caribbean. Part of a three-volume series analyzing U.S.-China relations in parts of the world where neither country is dominant, this volume analyzes the interactions between the U.S., China, and Latin America. The book series has so far considered the differences in operating styles between China and the U.S. in Central Asia and Southeast Asia. This third volume unpacks the implications of competing U.S. and Chinese interests in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, and China’s commitments in Nicaragua and Venezuela. This volume draws upon a variety of policy experts, focusing on the viewpoints of South American and Caribbean scholars as well as scholars from outside states. China’s new global reach and its ambitions, as well as the U.S. response, are analyzed in detail.A nuanced examination of current complexities and future implications, China, the United States and the Future of Latin America provides readers with varied perspectives on the changing economic and strategic picture in Latin America and the Caribbean.