Resources - Policy Statements
Monday, September 14, 2015
A sweeping new report by 17 organizations across Latin America, the United States and Canada calls attention to how drug policies have infringed on human rights. The study covers a wide range of issues, from lengthy prison sentences for minor drug offenders to prohibitive drug policies that run counter to international human rights and highlights how harsh drug policies often have a disproportionate effect on the most vulnerable sectors of society.English
Country(s):
Central America Regional
South America Regional
Program(s):
International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement
Publisher / Source:
Video, Audio or PDF?:
pdf
Letter to the State Department on Reduced Oversight of Private Security Activities Abroad
Monday, September 14, 2015
On July 31, 2015, the Center for International Policy and the Washington Office on Latin America sent a letter to the State Department raising concerns about their proposed rule change to the definition of defense services as published on June 3, 2015. The letter describes some of the key U.S. private security contractor activities abroad that would no longer be controlled by the State Department with the proposed rule and offers suggestions on how to improve the proposed definition.English
Country(s):
Global
Program(s):
Direct Commercial Sales
Publisher / Source:
Video, Audio or PDF?:
pdf
Friday, September 11, 2015
Broken Justice in Mexico’s Guerrero State examines the elements of that failure, and offers recommendations for change. The result of over two years of research and analysis by Mexican and international experts, and coproduced with Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan and the Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, this report provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the structural deficiencies of Guerrero’s justice system—flaws that have enabled perpetrators of violence to operate with almost absolute impunity.English
Country(s):
Mexico
Publisher / Source:
Secondary Publisher / Source:
Video, Audio or PDF?:
pdf
Friday, September 4, 2015
Facing serious crises in the Middle East and beyond, Washington is again turning to foreign aid to help advance urgent short-term security and political priorities. English
Country(s):
Global
Publisher / Source:
Friday, September 4, 2015
The United States and Mexico have apprehended nearly 1 million Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran migrants since 2010, deporting more than 800,000 of them, including more than 40,000 children. While the United States led in pace and number of apprehensions of Central Americans in 2010-2014, Mexico pulled ahead in 2015. Amid increasingly muscular enforcement by Mexico, U.S. apprehensions of Central Americans for fiscal 2015 to date have fallen by more than half compared to the prior year. Many of those who previously would have made it to the U.S. border and been apprehended by the Border Patrol now are being intercepted by Mexican authorities.
English
Country(s):
Central America Regional
Mexico
Publisher / Source:
Video, Audio or PDF?:
pdf
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
The Secretary-General welcomes the announcements of the intention of the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP to put in place new measures to de-escalate the current fighting in Colombia and to accelerate the negotiations in order to reach a peace agreement as soon as possible.
English
Country(s):
Colombia
Publisher / Source:
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Frederic C. Hof, Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center, delivered an address on June 8 to an audience at the NATO Defense College in Rome. His remarks considered the problem facing the United States and President Barack Obama on how to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). Without a shift in US policy to address the problem in both Iraq and Syria—and soon—the anti-ISIS coalition may find itself fighting the same battles against a much more entrenched extremist group. Please read excerpts of his remarks below.
Country(s):
Iraq
Syria
Publisher / Source:
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
In 2013, President Obama promised that before any U.S. drone strike, “there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured.” Death by Drone questions whether he has kept that promise.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The Islamic State (IS) is attracting Central Asians to Syria and fostering new links among radicals within the region. Unless the five Central Asian governments develop a credible, coordinated counter-action plan, including improved security measures but also social, political and economic reforms, growing radicalism will eventually pose a serious threat to their stability.English
Country(s):
Central Asia Regional
Publisher / Source:
Friday, December 5, 2014
"We, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries – Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States John Kerry, State Secretary for European Affairs of France Harlem Desir – remain strongly committed to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."English
Country(s):
Azerbaijan
Armenia
Publisher / Source:
Thursday, December 4, 2014
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) takes pride in its support of the AmericasBarometer. While the surveys’ primary goal is to give citizens a voice on a broad range of important issues, they also help guide USAID programming and inform policymakers throughout the Latin America and Caribbean region.English
Country(s):
Western Hemisphere Regional
Publisher / Source:
Secondary Publisher / Source:
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
The countries of Central America — especially “the Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras — are among the most criminally violent nations in the world. As part of the U.S. Government’s (USG) Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has designed and implemented a set of programs to improve citizen security in Central America by strengthening community capacity to combat crime and by creating educational and employment opportunities for at-risk youth.1 USAID’s crime prevention work has been implemented through its field Missions in five countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.English
Country(s):
Central America Regional
Publisher / Source:
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
NATO fully supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognised borders. Therefore, we do not recognise the so-called treaty on alliance and strategic partnership signed between the Georgian region of Abkhazia and Russia on 24 November.English
Country(s):
Georgia
Russia
Publisher / Source:
Friday, November 21, 2014
• A failure to institute reforms has led Bahrain’s main opposition groups to boycott
upcoming elections, undercutting the legitimacy of a parliament that, in any case, has
little power.
• The Bahraini government has unleashed another crackdown on activists, shutting down
the space for opposition in the lead up to the election.
• The ongoing repression of peaceful opposition increases the potential for violent groups
to exploit widespread disillusionment and take the lead in opposing the government.
• The government’s use of sectarian rhetoric to discredit the Shia opposition has also
created fertile ground for the growth of Sunni extremism.
• The U.S. should speak out against the imprisonment of peaceful activists, which adds
to long-term security risks, and should be flagged in the important bilateral dialogue by
defense officials as well as by diplomats.English
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Following yet another brutal murder of an American citizen on Sunday by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also known as ISIL or IS), the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) believes the following fact sheet will be useful for policymakers, lawmakers, and the general public to understand the nature of the crisis and the ongoing threat that ISIS poses to regional stability and U.S. interests.English
Country(s):
Iraq
Syria
Publisher / Source:
Monday, November 17, 2014
This Q&A explains the law’s complicated requirements, which mirror the labyrinthine nature of the FMF program itself. The complexity also reflects the fact that the law represents a compromise among the demands of competing stakeholders in the administration and Congress. These include those who do not want the military aid relationship to be linked to Egypt’s internal political situation, on the one hand, and democracy promoters who want to condition this aid on democratic progress in Egypt, on the other. The article describes what aid has been released, what has not moved forward—mostly, orders for some new defense items—and possible next steps by Congress. (A previous article discussed the Obama administration’s suspension, announced in October 2013, the delivery of four big-ticket weapons systems—Apache attack helicopters, F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams battle tank kits, and Harpoon missiles—pending “credible progress” toward democracy in Egypt. The suspension was an executive branch decision, and as such is separate from the requirements of the 2014 law.)English
Country(s):
Egypt
Program(s):
Foreign Military Financing
Publisher / Source:
Video, Audio or PDF?:
pdf
Thursday, November 13, 2014
In 2012 and 2013, the Panamá de Arauca region faced kidnappings, extortion, and attacks on vehicles and employees in the public and private sectors. The criminal alliances worked to turn this area into a strategic corridor in their plan to weaken the Colombian government.English
Country(s):
Panama
Publisher / Source:
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
At Andrews Joint Base on March 14, 2014 President Barack Obama told visiting uniformed defense chiefs that a key aspect of destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, also known as ISIL and the Islamic State) would be the promotion of moderate, legitimate governance inside Syria; governance that would ultimately be extended to all Syrians. On November 7, 2014 the White House published its strategy for "degrading and ultimately defeating ISIL:" nine lines of effort to that end. Which of the nine addressed the all-important element of moderate, legitimate governance in Syria? None. What is going on here? English
Friday, November 7, 2014
A diez años de comenzar este proyecto, pre- sentamos esta sexta edición del Atlas Comparativo con dos incorporaciones básicas: la inclusión de Costa Rica, Panamá y Haití completando el escenario regional, y un capítulo especial sobre las convergencias de las agendas de Caribe y América Latina. A lo largo de sus distintas ediciones el At- las Comparativo ha respondido a la necesidad de contar con un instrumento que pueda compilar y comparar información básica sobre los temas de defensa en los países de la región: los diferentes marcos legales, estructuras de los sistemas de defensa, concepciones políticas, cifras presupuestarias, misiones militares, y el tamaño de las Fuerzas, entre los principales.Spanish
Country(s):
Western Hemisphere Regional
Publisher / Source:
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
More than two months into the US and coalition air campaign, Obama administration officials and members of the US military’s senior leadership are confident that “Operation Inherent Resolve” is having the intended effect against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). The air strikes that began in Iraq on August 8 and the strikes that began in Syria on September 23, according to the Pentagon, are forcing Islamic State militants to adapt their battlefield tactics, disperse units into smaller and more mobile teams, and change the way it behaves as an offensive force. English