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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:10 pm
Time: 9:10 pm
Results for arms trafficking (latin america) (caribbean)
1 results foundAuthor: Tickner, Arlene B. Title: Latin America and the Caribbean: Domestic and Transnational Insecurity Summary: This paper will examine the two key axes of Latin American security dynamics: on the one hand, weak governance and citizen insecurity; and on the other, transnational organized crime and illicit flows. It will also explore their interlinkages, and the ways in which secondary security challenges in the region feed off of and/or reproduce them. Based upon this discussion the paper will then evaluate distinct mechanisms for coping with these problems, identify the most likely future security scenarios in the region and suggest a number of ways in which regional insecurity might be addressed more effectively. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the end of the Cold War coincided with transitions to democracy in Brazil and the Southern Cone, and the peaceful resolution of armed conflict in Central America.These developments, along with the intensification of globalization processes worldwide, inaugurated a hopeful era of “democratic peace” or “no war” suggesting a decreasing importance for traditional security matters. Although a series of bilateral border disputes continue to simmer in the region, the most intransient ones have been resolved. Indeed, since the 1995 war between Peru and Ecuador, interstate conflict has been all but erased, and military competition has been reduced dramatically. With the exception of Colombia’s entrenched civil war and Haiti’s faltering state, internal conflicts characterized by significant episodes of political violence have also become a distant memory. And yet, the countries of the region confront new types of security challenges that they have been hardpressed to tackle effectively. Ungovernability and institutional weakness plague the entire continent, albeit to differing degrees. High levels of political and economic instability and social unrest have led to a number of coups, presidential resignations and cyclical institutional crises since the 1990s. Furthermore, violence and citizen insecurity have reached epidemic proportions in many latitudes, making Latin America one of the most violent regions in the world today. Compounding this situation even further, transnational criminal organizations make increasing use of the area in order to stage their illegal activities. One of the most urgent tasks confronted by Latin America and the Caribbean is the enhancement of national capacities and intra-regional mechanisms to address its security predicament, which is rooted in domestic and transnational problems that are highly interrelated. Despite considerable attempts to develop a common security agenda and to strengthen multilateral cooperative mechanisms during the last fifteen years, the existing regional architecture continues to be ill-equipped to manage many of the nontraditional security challenges present in the region today. Although small strides have been made at the bilateral and subregional levels towards this goal, marked asymmetries and diversity within the region, combined with distinct political and military priorities and perceptions of risk on the part of different countries, pose serious obstacles to greater regionwide cooperation. United States security policy following 9/11 has also not been conducive to strengthening multilateral security arrangements, given its preference for unilateral action and its fixation on terrorism. At the same time, growing ideological rifts within the hemisphere itself, between the leftist, anti-globalization, anti-American governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, and Bolivia, pro- American governments in Mexico, Colombia, Central America and the Caribbean, and a moderate progressive block led by Brazil, Chile and Argentina, constitute yet another challenge to dealing with regional insecurity more successfully in the future. This paper will examine the two key axes of Latin American security dynamics: on the one hand, weak governance and citizen insecurity; and on the other, transnational organized crime and illicit flows. It will also explore their interlinkages, and the ways in which secondary security challenges in the region feed off of and/or reproduce them. Based upon this discussion the paper will then evaluate distinct mechanisms for coping with these problems, identify the most likely future security scenarios in the region and suggest a number of ways in which regional insecurity might be addressed more effectively. Details: New York: International Peace Academy, 2007. 20p. Source: Working with Crisis Working Paper Series: Internet Resource: Accessed May 8, 2012 at http://www.ipacademy.org/media/pdf/publications/cwc_working_paper_latin_america_at3.pdf Year: 2007 Country: International URL: http://www.ipacademy.org/media/pdf/publications/cwc_working_paper_latin_america_at3.pdf Shelf Number: 125212 Keywords: Arms Trafficking (Latin America) (Caribbean)Drug Trafficking (Latin America) (Caribbean)Human Security (Latin America) (Caribbean)Organized Crime (Latin America) (Caribbean) |