Security and Defense Studies Review - Offnews.info

Message from the DirectorThe Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies is very pleased to offer a singleconsolidated edition of the Security and Defense Studies Review this year. Asyou know, with the Winter 2008 volume, the Review added a hard copy versionof its peer-reviewed scholarly articles to its cyber edition. We have receivednumerous complimentary remarks about this change, as well as suggestionsfor possible future themes and improvements that best reflect the securityand defense challenges facing our hemisphere and beyond. Rest assured, weare listening to you and welcome your ideas, as well as seek your writtencontributions, in an effort to make the Review required reading for the largestnumber of our colleagues and friends.This edition of the Review includes several important articles by Center faculty,staff and colleagues. Four of the contributions are works presented at last July’s5th Sub-Regional Conference (SRC) in Cartagena, Colombia. The theme of that conference was “Challenges inSecurity and Defense in a Complex Political Environment: Prospects for Cooperation and Divergence in SouthAmerica.” From that highly-successful event, we have chosen the following articles for the Review: Argentinescholar María Cristina Montenegro presents an interesting analysis of the changing international system:“¿Emerge una nueva reconfiguración en el sistema internacional?” “El modelo de asignación de recursos paralas inversiones en defensa chileno: Impactos y comparaciones regionales,” by Alejandro Arévalo Sarce offersan important look at one method of assuring financial support for national defense, in this case, Chile. CarlosMaldonado wrestles, successfully many would argue, with old and new issues concerning strategic defense in“Dilemas antiguos y modernos en la inteligencia estratégica en Sudamérica.” Juan Carlos Ruíz Vásquez providesimportant reflections on peacekeeping and public security in his, “Soldados y policías: Corresponsabilidad ymisiones conjuntas militares-policías en el mantenimiento de la paz, postconflicto y seguridad publica.” Similarly,out of a January Caribbean Community Pandemic Influenza Workshop, co-sponsored by the U.S. NorthernCommand (NORTHCOM), the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), the University of the West Indies andCHDS, we have selected a critical look by D. Ramjee Singh, Allan Wright and Hilton McDavid titled “Influenzapandemic and its national security and macroeconomic implications for Jamaica.”From CHDS, several members of our faculty and staff have offered key insights into defense and security areas,breaking ground and hopefully stimulating further policy research and publication. R. Evan Ellis, who just thisyear published a critically-acclaimed book, China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores, zeroes in onthe Asian giant’s role in Colombia in “Las relaciones China-Colombia en el contexto de la relación estratégicaentre Colombia y los EEUU.” Counterinsurgency expert David Spencer examines some disturbing old/newdevelopments in the Southern Cone in the “Paraguayan People’s Army: Challenging a Populist Regime.” Revieweditor-in-chief Martin Edwin “Mick” Andersen, chief of strategic communications at the Center, provides a novellook at the role played by military chaplains as arguably the world’s first strategic communicators in antiquityand up to the present day. CHDS Dean of Students and Administration John C. Thompson brings importantinformation to our attention in his book review of Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban andAl Qaeda. Finally, the Review is re-publishing two important documents offered in 2009, both breaking newground for our readers. The first is the keynote speech by Frank O. Mora, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defensefor Western Hemisphere Affairs, delivered at the November conference co-sponsored by the Center with theBrookings Institution on “Strategic Implications of China’s Evolving Relationship with Latin America.” DASDMora’s remarks were heralded at the time they were made as providing important insights into the ObamaAdministration’s view of a much-commented phenomenon in the region. For that reason, we believe it isimportant to give them wide distribution as part of our policy education and research mission. The second is thetext of a speech given before the San Francisco Committee on Foreign Relations by retired Ambassador CresencioS. Arcos, currently with CHDS as a political advisor, on “Security, Intelligence and the Role of the Media.”In 2010, we fully expect to return to our original twice-yearly publishing schedule. Focuses inupcoming editions will include looks at the growing role of women in security and defense policy, thechallenge posed by transnational threats, and the role of ethnicity in the militaries of several countriesin the region. We hope you will consider making your own contributions to these and other CHDS efforts.With warm regards,Richard D. Downie, Ph.D.Security and Defense Studies Review 2009/Edición 2009/ Edicão 2009/ Volume 9, Issues 1 & 2 5