North America Archive

A Canadian scientist claims the Arctic Ocean will be open for regular commercial shipping within the next five to 10 years, but changing ice conditions could bring new hazards to ships. Science News by NewsLook

In March, the Mexican Senate ratified an agreement with the U.S. governing the exploration and development of transboundary oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. In an email interview, Duncan Wood, director of the international relations program at Mexico’s Autonomous Institute of Technology and a senior associate in the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discussed the U.S.-Mexico transboundary energy agreement. WPR: What is the history of energy cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico? Duncan Wood: Since the nationalization of Mexican oil in 1938, the relationship between the two countries in energy matters has […]

Earlier this month, the U.S. Army War College’s annual Strategy Conference sought to analyze how the U.S. military needs to adapt to an era of constrained resources and a changing global security environment, which includes the Arab Spring, the U.S. shift toward the Pacific, the effect of cyber warfare and the protracted global economic crisis. Titled the “Future of U.S. Grand Strategy in an Age of Austerity: Challenges and Opportunities,” the conference comes at a time when the U.S. is undertaking its fourth post-World War II defense drawdown, along the lines of those that occurred following the Korean War, the […]

For more than two centuries, Englishmen have burned an effigy of Guy Fawkes every year on Nov. 5 to commemorate the foiling of the Gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament in 1605. In the 21st century, Fawkes has been given a new lease on life by online activist groups who use photos of Guy Fawkes masks — modeled after that worn by the hero of the science fiction movie “V for Vendetta” — as their online avatars. These so-called hacktivists, who combine computer hacking with social, political and economic protest, have straddled the line between simple criminal behavior and legitimate […]

U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere has suffered a series of setbacks over the past month. The first, the Washington summit earlier this month between Presidents Barack Obama and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, was simply lackluster. The second, last weekend’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, was an outright fiasco. Instead of laying out a common agenda for the hemisphere and rebuilding America’s leadership role in the region, the U.S. found itself isolated in a diplomatic corner over Cuba, to say nothing of the Secret Service prostitution scandal that soon overshadowed the proceedings. More generally, Obama’s Latin America policy […]

Karen Hooper, a Latin America analyst with Stratfor, contendst that the April 17 discussions between Colombian President Manuel Santos and U.S. President Barack Obama showed evidence of the evolving relationship between the United States and Colombia. US News Video by NewsLook

International relations experts are pretty much down on everything nowadays. America, we are told, is incapable of global leadership: too discredited overseas, too few resources back home, too little will — period. For a brief moment there, while China held up the global economy during the recent financial crisis, much credence was given to the notion that we were on the verge of a Chinese century. But that popular vision has also waned surprisingly quickly, and now the conventional wisdom centers on China’s great weaknesses, challenges and overall brittleness. Amazingly, where we spoke of a U.S.-China “G-2” arrangement just a […]

A few months ago, I penned an essay for a WPR feature issue on counterinsurgency arguing that the U.S. Army was adrift as it transitioned out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In terms of the Army’s direction, that remains the case: While the U.S. Navy and Air Force have already crafted a narrative for how they can help the United States meet the security challenges of the 21st century, the Army is still pining for the days when the Soviet Union and its armies, poised to storm across the Fulda Gap, presented an intellectually simpler problem to solve. […]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday urged nuclear-armed North Korea not to go ahead with its planned rocket launch if it wants a “peaceful, better future” for its people. World News Videos by NewsLook

When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established in March 2003, one of the new department’s primary goals was to enhance U.S. cybersecurity. But after several years passed without major DHS initiatives in this area, observers concluded that the department was insufficiently prepared or resourced to address cyber emergencies. Indeed, prior to the 2008 presidential election, the influential think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Commission on Cybersecurity recommended that the next occupant of the White House formally revoke DHS’ limited authority to coordinate cybersecurity because the department, having never had authority over the U.S. military, intelligence community […]

NATO’s upcoming Chicago summit in May offers an opportunity for deliberation about the current state of the military alliance, including operations outside its core strategic area. In this context, the recent military intervention in Libya will likely be hailed as a successful and hopefully replicable model (.pdf). Swift and precise action followed by rapid withdrawal represent a welcome change from the alliance’s drawn-out mission in Afghanistan. In contrast to the Afghan quagmire, the Libyan model, with its prompt termination of military operations and deliberate lack of involvement in the subsequent political transition, looks like a promising alternative. Yet the assumption […]