Research Library

The development of the petroleum sector has been characterized by a succession of cycles of investment and expropriation that have been particularly pronounced in Latin America. This paper analyzes the causes of these cycles and the lessons that can be derived and applied during the implementation of the petroleum reform in Mexico.

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.

Authors Tony Payan and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera lay out how Mexico must anticipate and resolve potential problems in organized crime, corruption and natural resource allocation priorities in order to successfully implement its energy reforms.

This research summary analyzes the obstacles facing gender-focused policy research institutes (PRIs) in the Middle East North Africa region and explores how PRIs and think tanks can work to promote gender equality.

In this paper, the author weighs the difficulties facing Venezuela in light of its dependence on oil export revenues.

After decades of underinvestment, Mexico's natural gas pipeline network faces severe limitations in capacity and geographical coverage, leading to limitations in meeting domestic demand. To correct this, the government has launched an aggressive program to upgrade natural gas transport capabilities. The natural gas infrastructure program and energy reform are designed in part to help decrease Mexico’s reliance on imports of fertilizers (urea) and basic food staples, which stand at approximately 70 percent and 43 percent of domestic consumption, respectively. Increasing natural gas production and infrastructure will contribute to gains in ammonia and nitrogen fertilizer production, which would in turn have a positive impact on Mexico’s agroindustry.

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.

This study highlights areas where the U.S.-Mexico higher education mobility framework is strong and others where there is much to improve. Government, industry and other private partners must work together with higher education institutions to reverse the region’s downward trend of academic mobility. Collectively, leadership from within the higher education community along with partners in industry, government and the philanthropic community must create a framework for higher education mobility that is voluntary and flexible over time and that incentivizes investments that support long-term bilateral engagement.

In this study, Al Troner reviews, analyzes, and tracks the changes that have emerged in US oil and gas over recent years, and surveys the implications of modification, or full abolition, of the decades-long US crude oil export ban.

The Gulf Cooperation Council states have emerged as increasingly visible global actors with diverse geopolitical interests.