Last month, Brazil and Angola signed a Technical Memorandum of Understanding for the Brazilian navy to support the development of Angola’s naval capabilities. Angola will purchase seven Brazilian Macae patrol ships, four of them built in Brazil with Angolan personnel support, and three others in Angola. Brazil will also train Angolan military personnel and build a shipyard in Angola. The agreement is another sign of Brazil and Angola’s strategic partnership, following their 2010 Defense Cooperation Agreement and more recent pacts on naval and aeronautic cooperation. But it also fits into Angola’s broader strategy to secure its maritime borders to safeguard [...]
Electoral democracy is flourishing across Latin America. But if the region has eagerly embraced pluralism to decide policy, many problems must still be addressed, ranging from insecurity and corruption to balancing economic growth with environmental concerns. This report covers the full spectrum of Latin America’s challenges. Mexico Mexico’s Energy Reform: A Major First Step on a Very Long JourneyBy Jed BaileyJan. 3, 2014 Rise of Self-Defense Groups Highlights Mexico’s State-Level Security ChallengesBy Benoît Gomis and Jerónimo MoharJan. 24, 2014 Mexico’s Scaled-Backed Gendarmerie Force No Security PanaceaBy Nathaniel Parish FlanneryAug. 1, 2014 Central America and the Caribbean Border Disputes, Political Tensions [...]
The leaders of all five littoral states attended the fourth Caspian Sea summit in the Russian city of Astrakhan yesterday. The latest meeting was more significant than previous summits held in Turkmenistan in 2002, Iran in 2007 and Azerbaijan in 2010, as the parties reached important agreements on some issues. Yet, others continue to divide them, with implications that reach far beyond the Caspian. At yesterday’s summit, the five littoral state presidents—Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkmenistan’s Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, Iran’s Hassan Rouhani and Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev—renewed their commitment to keeping non-Caspian countries from establishing a military presence on the [...]
