Biography
Nathan P. Jones, Ph.D., is a nonresident scholar in drug policy and Mexico studies at the Baker Institute and an associate professor of security studies at Sam Houston State University in the College of Criminal Justice. His research focuses on drug violence in Mexico. Jones’ work has been published by many think tanks, including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Insight Crime.
Jones is the author of “Mexico’s Illicit Drug Networks and the State Reaction” (Georgetown University Press) and has published myriad articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, including Studies in Conflict & Terrorism; Trends in Organized Crime; Media, War, & Conflict; and the Journal of Strategic Security, for which he was recently added to the editorial board. He has been a trusted source on issues of violence in Mexico with media outlets such as the Houston Chronicle, The Texas Standard, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and KPBS San Diego radio and television.
While studying at the University of California, Irvine, Jones won an Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation dissertation fellowship to conduct one year of fieldwork in Mexico, which he spent in Tijuana and Mexico City assessing the resilience and illicit network structure of the Tijuana cartel. In 2013, he was awarded the Western Political Science Association Best Dissertation Award. He also received a Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies affiliate/research award and the James Danziger Excellence in Teaching Award.
Jones received his bachelor’s in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate in political science, focusing on international relations with a regional specialization in Latin America, at UC Irvine.
Contact at nxj008@shsu.edu or 936-294-3635.
Recent Publications
Are Drug Cartels ‘Terrorist Organizations’? U.S., Mexican Leaders Have Strong Opinions
Designating Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations is a bad idea, said Center for the U.S. & Mexico’s Nathan Jones. Any benefit gained “would be wiped out by a lack of [U.S.-Mexico] cooperation that would likely result.”
Cartels Lure Americans Online (and it’s Only Getting Harder to Stop)
“Basically, the motivation (for Americans) is on some level greed, quick money,” Center for the U.S. and Mexico’s Nathan Jones said of the growing number of cartels online. “Sometimes you do feel for the person in a desperate situation, but the act is still illegal.”
Did Mexico’s Top Cop Play a Role in the Killing of a DEA Informant?
“It’s a massive betrayal of the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico and the law enforcement cooperation,” said scholar Nathan Jones on the charges facing Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s ex-security chief, related to the killing of a DEA informant.
Book Chapters
- “No Half-Measures: Mexico’s Quixotic Policy on California’s Proposition 19” in Something’s in the Air: Race, Crime, and the Legalization of Marijuana, eds Katherine Tate, Taylor James Lance and Mark Q. Sawyer, 190 (Routledge, 2013).
External Publications
- “Arrest of Mexican Kingpin ‘El Chapo’ Won’t Slow Texas Drug Trade,” TribTalk, January 29, 2016.
- “Marijuana’s Legalization Can Crimp Power of Mexican Cartels,” Houston Chronicle, February 27, 2014.
- “Politics Slows Legalization Effort,” Houston Chronicle, January 25, 2014.
- “It’s Time for Texas to Support Legalization of Marijuana,” Houston Chronicle, October 25, 2013.
- “Rethinking the War on Drugs,” Houston Chronicle, August 16, 2013.
- “Texas Should Not Mandate Drug Tests for Unemployment Benefits,” Houston Chronicle, March 28, 2013.
- “Monopoly of Force Does Not Always Explain Peace: Illicit Network Evolution Does,” Small Wars Journal, August 29, 2012.
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“Tijuana Cartel Survives, Despite Decade-Long Onslaught,” Insight Crime, July 19, 2012.