Research Library

With Mexico's 2024 elections quickly approaching, will democracy prevail, or will the nation backslide into a one-party system?

Sen. Xochitl Gálvez, the Mexican opposition nominee for president, chose to visit a suburb north of Houston for her first campaign event abroad. Research scholar Rodrigo Montes de Oca explains why it was a smart choice — and what the visit shows about the dark horse candidate.

In late November, Hong Kong's high court ruled that a government ban on face masks was unconstitutional. This brief analyzes Beijing's subsequent response that, if enforced, may signal the extension of unchecked central dictatorship over Hong Kong’s political apparatus.

As the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 approaches, fellow George W.S. Abbey, former director of the Johnson Space Center, traces America's race to the moon — and describes what it took to be the first ones there.

Mexico’s electoral authorities made several poor decisions in the two most recent election cycles. This brief examines these decisions in light of the continued fragility of Mexico's political institutions, and it argues that all rulings are pivotal for the credibility of future elections and the consolidation of Mexico’s democracy.

This brief explores how a quirk in the measurement of women’s labor force participation and the demographic peculiarities of the Persian Gulf have resulted in the significant undercounting of female citizen labor in the Gulf Cooperation Council. I

In this brief, the authors examine the link between oil and female labor force participation in the Middle East and North Africa.

Despite enviable increases in educational attainment, women in the MENA countries may fare less well in attaining a form of social capital integral to their ability to exercise full political, economic and social agency: wasta — loosely, clout, or using one’s connections and/or influence to get things done.