This paper builds on social network analysis (SNA) and the use of node similarity-based algorithms to make link predictions about Mexico’s network of criminal organizations.
Oscar Contreras Velasco, Nathan P. Jones, Daniel Weisz Argomedo, John P. Sullivan, Chris CallaghanAugust 30, 2023
This paper seeks to identify the key factors that explain why local officials in Mexico — mayors, former mayors, mayors-elect and mayoral candidates — are being killed and to provide policy alternatives to address this important threat to Mexican democracy.
David Pérez Esparza, Helden De Paz ManceraJune 4, 2018
Currently the Nigerian state is undergoing a civil war, with the protagonist being the Salafi-jihadi group popularly called Boko Haram. During the years since 2011, Boko Haram has morphed from being a local Salafi-jihadi group into a major player in West African radicalism. During the period since July 2014, Boko Haram has clearly set the establishment of a physical Islamic state in Nigeria as its goal and has fought the Nigerian military to a draw. While there is some support among the U.S. foreign policy community for proactively combating Boko Haram, the Nigerian civil war is not one that commands much interest among Americans as a whole. Nor is it clear the manner in which aid for fighting Boko Haram could be rendered or what exactly would be the acceptable scope of such a conflict for the United States. In this paper, author David Cook argues that there are only extreme circumstances under which the United States should involve itself in the Nigerian civil war and that thus far this conflict does not coincide with those circumstances. However, it is possible that with Boko Haram set upon the establishment of an Islamic state there could come a set of circumstances under which this reality could change.
Rice faculty scholar David Cook explores the threat that the Boko Haram, a Salafi-jihadi Muslim group from northeastern Nigeria, poses to U.S. interests in Africa.