Security and Defense Studies Review 2010 Fall ... - Offnews.info

in earlier times around faith and devotion within the structure of the Catholic Church, is reorienting tomodernity and the secularism it brings to many places. Finally, to a certain degree, political terrorismhas become habit or party to a self-perpetuating cycle in many countries. Crime and terrorism areestablished as the way to effect change or to demand recognition. Its violence is most often met byequal or greater government violence, where tit for tat is inculcated into generations as reasonablepolicy.These are some of the long-range causes of crime, violence, and political terrorism. In additionto these long-term factors, our analysis also focused on short-term or proximate causes: the rise ofcriminal gangs, spillover effects from narco-violence in Mexico, the worldwide economic downturn,and globalization. Emerging patterns of crime and terrorism in Latin America now join the alreadywell-documented permutations seen in other areas in recent decades. They include transnationalcooperation among disparate mafia groups, entrenched criminality that may eclipse state authority,and diffusion of Middle Eastern terrorism and possibly the al Qaeda network to this far-off region.These patterns represent the never-ending evolution of terrorism and the greatest threat from politicalterrorism to domestic and international security.Response has centered around two principle needs in policy: an effective means of capturingterrorists or otherwise physically restraining terrorism and the mending of societal and economicwoes in order to prevent the production of terrorists or an environment conducive to their creation.The former, while critical, will never be able entirely to halt terrorism, so the latter is in that sensemore important. To these two factors we would add what seems to be the most critical factor: theneed for effective, democratic, pluralist governance and effective delivery of social and economicdevelopment, itself difficult in transitional societies.The United States has chosen to engage itself in aiding Latin America to fight crime and violence.In the ever-changing world, the United States will come to engage more actively and aggressivelyin aiding its southern neighbors. The world is more interdependent than ever, and the United Stateshas its strongest ties to Latin America in history. Moreover, through immigration, culture, trade,tourism, oil, and natural gas, to say nothing of drugs and crime, we are also more interdependent withLatin America than ever before. But there is another consideration that currently preoccupies muchof Washington’s policy: the global war on terrorism. The U.S. cannot do it all; Latin American statesmust also be cooperatively involved. In later sessions of this conference we will discuss these newand cooperative efforts.The truest test of Latin American success can be found in the formidable task to democratize anddevelop in an environment fraught with tension and violence. Proof of Latin America’s ability to doso will be found in its ability, with U.S. assistance, to identify and adopt effective, responsible, andfeasible means of coping with the challenge.Security and Defense Studies Review 2010 Fall-Winter Issue / Edicíón Otoño-Invierno 2010 / Edicão Outono-Inverno 2010 / Volume 11 177