As the general concern around the world has shifted towards the global economic crisis (rightly so), we thought to remind everyone that this crisis could manifest itself into other areas, namely the security arena. As it stands, there are still many parts of the world where dictatorial leaders would use this economic downturn as an opportune time to advance their political agendas. To illuminate these challenges, we helped the Heritage Foundation put together a panel for their 2009 Heritage Resource Bank in Los Angeles, CA, in which we brought top experts from around the globe to discuss the potential challenges of an increasingly dangerous world.
The speakers were as follows:
The panel was moderated by Heritage’s own Sally McNamara, who opened the session discussing the looming threat of Russia and the increasingly important need for an effective global missile defense system to counter such threats. Sally has published recently on this topic, and her opening remarks were centered around this publication. Next up was In-Young Kim, who gave the audience an analysis of the recent North Korean missile launch, describing this incident as one with multiple aims. Dr. Kim’s conclusion was that the only way to decrease the threat of North Korea, is to increase their access to markets and liberalize their economy, something that civil society should take a lead role in accomplishing.
From there we jumped across the ocean to Latin America, where Marcela Prieto discussed a new project that she has initiated with another major SFS partner in Colombia – Fundacion Ideas para la Paz. The project is essentially an Observatory on security, policy and strategy in Latin America, named “Observatorio de Politica y Estrategia en America Latina (OEAL).” The site is aimed at countering what has been coined as “21st Century Socialism” in Latin America and bringing to light the damaging effect this populist movement has caused throughout the region. The site is set to go live within the next couple weeks.
Finally, the session ended with a bang as the Pentagon’s former number one expert on Latin America – Roger Pardo-Maurer – gave a compelling presentation on why the US needs to refocus its strategy for Mexico, by thinking past border security and embracing the deep cultural and historic ties we have with this nation. This was very fitting as we were in LA, and Roger made a strong case in showing us how our destinies are intertwined. As easily as Mexico can be our friend, they could turn into our enemy. We were reminded of this potential catastrophe a couple years ago when leftist PRD candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador barely lost the election to the current president – Felipe Calderon.
The session far exceeded my expectations, and I was very pleased with the all three presentations. Thank you to Heritage for allowing us to put together such a dynamic panel, and we hope you enjoy this work.
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