The Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations: Strategic Foresight

Overview

This project critically examined the U.S.-Mexico relationship, applying strategic foresight methods to identify the variables that will likely impact the future health of the binational relationship, project the possible outcomes of the relationship under the current political climate, and examine the broader challenges that the U.S. and Mexico will face in the coming decades. The project also proposed optimal scenarios and policy recommendations to share with policymakers in the United States and Mexico.

The edited volume "The Future of US-Mexico Relations: Strategic Foresight" is the culmination of this major research effort. Employing a strategic foresight methodology, the authors use past trends and identify pivotal drivers to predict, based on indicators, at least three possible outcomes for the next few decades: a baseline or continuity scenario and an optimistic and a pessimitic one. Each chapter explores the future of the U.S.-Mexico relation focusing on relevant topics such as trade, immigration, the environment, drugs, health, security, among others. Most chapters are co-written by scholars from the United States and Mexico.

Fall Webinar Series

Throughout the 2020 fall semester, the project partners hosted a series of webinars to present the edited volume and showcase the issues and authors.

Project Partners

• Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University
• Center for U.S. and Mexican Law at the University of Houston Law Center
• Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center at Southern Methodist University
• School of Government and Public Transformation at Tecnológico de Monterrey
• International Studies Department at Universidad Iberoamericana
• Faculty of Law and Criminology at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

The Mexico Center team and some of the authors at a workshop at the University of Houston Law Center on Feb. 26, 2018.

The authors and the issues focused on are:

Back to the Future: Mexico and the United States

Ana Covarrubias, El Colegio de México

Peter Smith, University of California, San Diego

Forecasting the Next Twenty-Five Years of the US-Mexico Public Safety and Security Relationship

Nathan J. Jones, Sam Houston State University

Samuel González Ruiz, Centro de Estudios de Política Criminal y Ciencias Penales, A.C.

US and Mexico Future Security and Defense Scenarios:From Convergence to Divergence?

Abelardo Rodríguez Sumano, Universidad Iberoamericana

Richard Kilroy, Coastal Carolina University

Environmental Protection on the Mexico-US Border: Three Scenarios

Stephen Mumme, Colorado State University

Irasema Coronado, University of Texas at El Paso

Edmundo Molina Pérez, Tecnológico de Monterrey

Economic Relations Between Mexico and the United States: The Future of an Inevitable Partnership

Antonio Ortiz Mena, Albright Stonebridge Group

The Future of the US-Mexico Relationship: Strategic Foresight on International Migration

Karla Valenzuela, Universidad Iberoamerica

Lindsay Lowell, Georgetown University

The US-Mexico Borderlands: Exploring Alternative Futures

Jason Ackleson, Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University

Guadalupe Correa Cabrera, George Mason University

A Foresight Analysis of Border Economies of the United States and Mexico

Jesús Cañas, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Raúl Alberto Ponce Rodríguez, Universidad Autonóma de Ciudad Juárez

Fossil Fuels Trade Between Mexico and the United States: Possible Scenarios During the Lopez Obrador-Trump Era

Isidro Morales Moreno, Tecnológico de Monterrey

Pilar Rodríguez, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

The Future of US-Mexico Relations: Renewable Energy and Electric Power Connections

Gina Warren, University of Houston

US-Mexico Relations from a Health Law Approach: Prospective Elements for Integrated National Healthcare Models

Alfonso López de la Osa Escribano, University of Houston Law Center

US-Mexico Border: Non-Communicable and Communicable Health Inequalities

Eva Moya, University of Texas at El Paso

Silvia Chavez-Baray, Univeristy of Texas at El Paso

Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine

Political and Economic Trends in Mexico and their Effects on US-Mexico's Binational Relationship

Jesús Guillermo Velasco, Tarleton State University

Joy Langston, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

Socio-Demographic, Cultural and Political Change in the United States: Three Scenarios on the US-Mexico Relationship

Daniel Tichenor, University of Oregon

Tony Payan, Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University

The Future of US-Mexico Relatios: The Role of Sub-State Governments

Jorge Schiavon Uriegas, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

Lucas McMillan, Lander University

Texas-Mexico Economic Integration and its Uncertain Future

Michael Cox, Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business

Richard Alm, Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business