Research Library

This brief outlines how the Small Business Administration's long-standing 7(a) loan program can build upon the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen its operations and impact.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is about to achieve the quiet but full militarization of Mexican society by placing all armed government forces under Defense Secretariat command, writes nonresident fellow Gary Hale. If he is successful, this could lay the groundwork for his possible extended tenure, even if it creates a military junta by subterfuge.

Gas geoeconomics is an essential prerequisite for victory over Russia in Ukraine and US credibility in Asia—and should be one of Washington’s top national security priorities, the authors write.

As the reality of protracted drought pervades the border region, the need for greater cooperation between the United States and Mexico on transboundary groundwater management is becoming more urgent, writes nonresident scholar Stephen Mumme.

As the energy transition continues, the viability of our power system is at stake. Nonresident scholar Julie A. Cohn explains the need to prepare for next-generation grid technology if we are to maintain a stable, economical and secure power system.

Biden’s foreign policy retains the usual mix of high ideals and pragmatic self-interest that has been a hallmark of U.S. foreign policy since the Republic’s founding.

With conflict on two fronts, and natural gas squarely in the crosshairs, the US LNG industry will be needed to support our allies in both Europe and Asia this winter, write the authors.

Proactive U.S. efforts to enhance Europe’s gas security and blunt Russia’s ability to use gas for hybrid warfare would directly support its ability to sustain and upgrade its combat credibility in East and Southeast Asia. By incentivizing upstream gas investments globally through the demand call associated with a broader European move to replace Russian gas with LNG, gas geoeconomics would over the medium term also help increase global LNG supply to the ultimate benefit of U.S. allies in Asia, foremost among them Japan and South Korea.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s investment policies, which aim to return Mexico to the protectionist, state-led policies of the 1960s and 1970s, seem almost certain to stagnate the country’s economy.

The energy policies of the United States and Mexico are at a crossroads, writes nonresident scholar Isidro Morales. In this report, he explains that the future direction of energy in both nations depends on how global energy markets adjust to the latest shock to the system — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.