Research Library

The authors of this brief assert that amid mounting allegations of abuse of power at the U.S.-Mexico border, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) needs to incorporate measures to improve transparency and accountability, particularly in the matter of redressing complaints.

Although the energy challenge is significant and requires a long-term view to be successfully addressed, long-term goals can be sustainably achieved through fundamental research and development.

Mexico’s energy reforms created a still-developing reality whereby interactions among the players require new rules, new dispute settlement procedures, and far-reaching legal expertise. Importantly, the reforms also redefined the country's prevailing culture and legal norms. This prologue serves as a guide for readers of the series of papers that follow on the impact of energy reforms on Mexico's rule of law.

U.S. policy should facilitate and support investment in Latin America’s oil and gas sectors, which would contribute to energy security and support economic integration with Mexico and Latin America, writes fellow Francisco J. Monaldi.

Criminal extortion is on the rise in Mexico, particularly along the northern border states. Author Gary Hale shows how this trend has fueled government corruption, with officials implicitly or explicitly aiding organized crime groups as they extort businesses and citizens.

This brief argues that, in contrast to the pessimism and ongoing recession in Latin America generated by the collapse of commodity prices, there are reasons for optimism in the area of external financing.

Using charts, figures and graphs of this survey data originally created by former career intelligence analyst Brian C. Bennett and updated by the Drug Policy Program, this issue brief offers an overview of drug use trends in America over the last four decades. The brief is part of a larger online project chronicling the pattern of the use and abuse of individual drugs over (in most cases) more than 40 years.

This issue brief examines how globalization has aided the spread of transnational organized crime and the challenges to combating it.

This paper critiques the Mexican government's efforts to train the country's workers for jobs created by energy reforms.