Inter-American War Game

The 2013 Inter-American War Game (IAWG) was hosted by the U.S. Naval War College. The IAWG is intended to provide an opportunity for professional exchange of views among maritime war colleges in the Western Hemisphere, ultimately to enhance multinational cooperation among our maritime forces. The 2013 IAWG was organized into an on-line planning phase in Feb 2013, an on- line execution phase in May 2013, and Closing Conference analysis phase in Aug 2013. IAWG countries include: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Invitations were to participate were provided to each IAWG country. Twelve countries participated in the 2013 IAWG

The Dubious Perspective of the Eastern Partnership Countries Joining the European Union

There were significant geopolitical shuffles in Europe in the early 1990s. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, the collapse of socialist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe & the disintegration of Yugoslavia emerged as severe threats to destabilizing the international system. Some European countries of the former Eastern Bloc joined the E.U. and NATO swiftly. In contrast, the adjacent countries to Russia of the so-called Eastern Partnership, even Russia in the early '90s, have shown interest in close cooperation with the West. However, the E.U.'s support for the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia led to a loss of confidence. Discontent escalated, and the EU-Russia partnership froze after the occupation of Crimea and its annexation to Russia. Having recovered economically and politically, Russia seeks its restoration as a superpower and the rival U.S. In this perspective, Russia envisages perpetuating its influence on the countries that had been members of the Soviet Union. Presumably, Russia is directly or indirectly trying to impede the European course of the Eastern Partnership countries that have already declared an interest in becoming E.U.  members. The developments in the most significant countries of the Eastern Partnership countries, Ukraine and Georgia, confirm the difficulties they face in claiming the right to join the E.U and N.A.T.O. Has the E.U. Enlargement to the East reached its limits? Can the Eastern Partnership countries ever become E.U. members

The Drug Problem and Organized Crime, Illicit Financial Flows, Corruption and Terrorism

An estimated quarter of a billion people, or around 5 per cent of the global adult population, used drugs at least once in 2015. Even more worrisome is the fact that about 29.5 million of those drug users, or 0.6 per cent of the global adult population, suffer from drug use disorders. This means that their drug use is harmful to the point that they may experience drug dependence and require treatment.The magnitude of the harm caused by drug use is underlined by the estimated 28 million years of "healthy" life (disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)) lost worldwide in 2015 as a result of premature death and disability caused by drug use.Of those years lost, 17 million were attributable solely to drug use disorders across all drug types. DALYs attributable to morbidity and mortality resulting from all causes of drug use have increased overall in the past decade.Yet, with fewer than one in six persons with drug use disorders provided with treatment each year, the availability of and access to science-based services for the treatment of drug use disorders and related conditions remain limited

Maritime interdiction in the war on drugs in Colombia: practices, technologies and technological innovation

Since the early 1990s, maritime routes have been considered to be the main method used by Colombian smugglers to transport illicit drugs to consumer or transhipment countries. Smugglers purchase off the shelf solutions to transport illicit drugs, such as go-fast boats and communication equipment, but also invest in developing their own artefacts, such as makeshift submersible and semisubmersible artefacts, narcosubmarines. The Colombian Navy has adopted several strategies and adapted several technologies in their attempt to control the flows of illicit drugs. In this research I present an overview of the ‘co-evolution’ of drug trafficking technologies and the techniques and technologies used by the Colombian Navy to counter the activities of drug smugglers, emphasizing the process of self-building artefacts by smugglers and local responses by the Navy personnel. The diversity of smugglers artefacts are analysed as a result of local knowledge and dispersed peer-innovation. Novel uses of old technologies and practices of interdiction arise as the result of different forms of learning, among them a local form of knowledge ‘malicia indigena’ (local cunning). The procurement and use of interdiction boats and operational strategies by the Navy are shaped by interaction of two arenas: the arena of practice - the knowledge and experience of local commanders and their perceptions of interdiction events; and, the arena of command, which focuses on producing tangible results in order to reassert the Navy as a capable counterdrug agency. This thesis offers insights from Science and Technology Studies to the understanding of the ‘War on Drugs, and in particular the Biography of Artefacts and Practices, perspective that combines historical and to ethnographic methods to engage different moments and locales. Special attention was given to the uneven access to information between different settings and the consequences of this asymmetry both for the research and also for the actors involved in the process. The empirical findings and theoretical insights contribute to understanding drug smuggling and military organisations and Enforcement Agencies in ways that can inform public policies regarding illicit drug control

Street Gangs: The New Urban Insurgency

The primary thrust of this monograph is to explain the linkage of contemporary criminal street gangs (that is, the gang phenomenon or third generation gangs) to insurgency in terms of the instability it wreaks upon government and the concomitant challenge to state sovereignty. Although there are differences between gangs and insurgents regarding motives and modes of operations, this linkage infers that gang phenomena are mutated forms of urban insurgency. In these terms, these new nonstate actors must eventually seize political power in order to guarantee the freedom of action and the commercial environment they want. The common denominator that clearly links the gang phenomenon to insurgency is that the third generation gangs\u27 and insurgents\u27 ultimate objective is to depose or control the governments of targeted countries. As a consequence, the Duck Analogy applies. Third generation gangs look like ducks, walk like ducks, and act like ducks—a peculiar breed, but ducks nevertheless! This monograph concludes with recommendations for the United States and other countries to focus security and assistance responses at the strategic level. The intent is to help leaders achieve strategic clarity and operate more effectively in the complex politically dominated, contemporary global security arena.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1752/thumbnail.jp

Lost in Space No Longer: The Visionary Union of \u27The Wire\u27

In its serial space, David Simon’s The Wire season two relates the seemingly “disconnected” union men, foreign sex worker women, and African-American drug traders and crosses constructed boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, and geography to evoke the possibility of a transnational working class. The Wire’s serialized narrative trespasses the limitations of money and numbers games and of individual characters to build, scene by scene, what Roderick Ferguson calls in Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique “the location for new and emergent identifications and social relations” (108)