The Gates Revolution and Mexico's Criminal Insurgency

Two new articles published this week. I have a piece at Huffington Post on SecDef Gates' fusing of theory and practice and a re-examination of Mexico's criminal insurgency. with Lt. John P. Sullivan at Small Wars Journal-a topic that we originally examined in August 2008.

Comments

[david ronfeldt]

Of possible interest to those of us interested in Mexico: RAND has just issued a report on Security in Mexico: Implications for U.S. Policy Options, plus a summary research brief. As one option, the report calls for U.S. policy to: “Engage in a strategic partnership with Mexico that emphasizes reform and longer-term institution building.”
>
I’ve also just found that the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute issued an impressive report a few months ago, The United States and Mexico: Towards a Strategic Partnership (January 2009), that provides many similar, wider-ranging, often more detailed recommendations, likewise focused on institution building.
>
Yet, many points in both reports are implicitly about networks: e.g., bridging coordination gaps and building consultative partnerships across all levels of government, strengthening interagency cooperation and planning, and developing cross-border collaborations among state, market, and civil-society actors.
>
Thus, the two reports -- both downloadable online -- show that institution-building is currently the hot concept. My view remains that network-building may be a more advisable, illuminatinig concept for analyzing and addressing some matters.

[A.E.]

Thanks, I forwarded the reports to Sullivan.