Western Hemisphere

Belize 2021 National Security Framework: Strengthening the Links between Policy, Resource Allocation and Execution COL Dale C Eikmeier, Prof Bernard F Griffard Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The absence of an institutionalized process for long-range national security planning is a strategic disadvantage. To reduce risk and achieve Vision 2021, Belize requires an integrated national security architecture that develops policy, coordinates action plans, monitors execution, reviews progress and maintains a long-term perspective. Currently, the government does not possess an adequate national security planning structure with the requisit capability. Redesigning the current national security architecture so that it provides long-range planning, coordination between cabinet ministers and their agencies, and monitoring of security programs can be the difference between success and failure of a national security strategy. "

Castro's Cuba: Quo Vadis? Dr Francisco Wong-Diaz Monograph by US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The United States, particularly the Army, has a long history of involvement with Cuba. It has included, among others, the Spanish-American War of 1898, military interventions in 1906 and 1912, the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, the 1962 Missile Crisis, counterinsurgency, and low intensity warfare in Latin America and Africa against Cuban supported guerrilla movements."

Defense, Development, and Diplomacy (3D): Canadian and U.S. Military Perspectives Dr Max G Manwaring Colloquium Brief by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, with Queens University, and the Canadian Land Forces Doctrine and Training System "War has changed. New organizing principles require a new paradigm that facilitates change from a singular military approach to a multidimensional, multi organizational, and multilateral/multinational whole-of-government and whole-of-alliance/coalition approach to deal more effectively with the contemporary global security reality."

Belize 2021: Ends, Ways, Means and Risk Management: Belize National Security Strategy Formulation Process Workshop #2 COL Dale C Eikmeier, Prof Bernard F Griffard Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "On August 22, 2006 planners representing Belize’s security organizations and other government agencies reconvened to continue their national security strategy formulation process. Their initial efforts in June 2006, reported in CSL Issue Paper, Belize 2021: Developing a National Security Strategy for the Future, July 2006, Volume 06-06, produced the Belize 2021 Vision, its national goals, and identified tiered threats to success that required counter-strategies. This paper looks at the continuing process to develop Belize’s roadmap to 2021 exercised during this second strategy formulation workshop."

Belize 2021: Developing a National Security Strategy for the Future Prof Bernard F Griffard Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Enhancing hemispheric stability and security in the Central America and Caribbean regions is dependent on the development of cohesive Regional Security Strategies. To achieve this goal the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) is setting a foundation by building regional partnerships one nation at a time. "

Canadian Defense Policy--A breath of Fresh Air Dr Alex Crowther Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Canada and the United States closely cooperated in most security issues during the 20th century. In recent years, however, security relations between Canada and the United States have become strained, mainly due to disagreements on the methods used by the United States in prosecuting the Global War on Terror. The first policy issue was the Canadian government’s decision to decrease security resources significantly in the wake of the Cold War. The second issue centers on Canada’s disagreement concerning Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, as well as other U.S. policy decisions such as the use of Guantanamo Bay."

The Challenge of Governance and Security Dr Max G Manwaring Colloquium Brief by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, with the U.S. Southern Command, the Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International University "A contemporary assessment of Latin American and Caribbean security must address a comprehensive, all-inclusive threat environment and consider the utility of all instruments of state power."

The Mexican Armed Forces in Transition Dr Jordi Diez, COL Ian Nicholls Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "After the September 11, 2001 (9/11), attacks on the United States, homeland defense became the primary issue in U.S. defense policy. At the same time, it was clear that homeland defense would have to become a trilateral continental issue, and, thus, would have to include Canada and Mexico. Because the United States and Canada already had developed a relatively close relationship during and after World War II as a result of their common interests and efforts in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and NORAD (North American Air Defense), it became important to begin to understand the Mexican armed forces and their capabilities. This monograph, written from a Canadian prospective, is a significant step in that direction."

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivarian Socialism, and Asymmetric Warfare Dr Max G Manwaring Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This monograph comes at a time when the U.S. and Venezuelan governments are intensifying an ongoing series of acrimonious charges and countercharges. Each country has argued repeatedly that the other is engaged in a political-economic-military struggle for Western Hemisphere hegemony. On a more personal level, the United States maintains that President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is playing a destabilizing role in the region, and is compromising the quality of democracy and the exercise of power in Venezuela and other parts of the Americas. Chávez rebuts that the only destabilizing factor in the hemisphere is President George W. Bush, and that democracy and power long since have been perverted by American capitalists and local elites for their own purposes. And the U.S.-Venezuelan verbal sparing match continues unabated."