Global Security
Global Security
Fair Observer's analysis of issues in governance, constitution, law, enforcement, and justice both nationally and internationally.
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360° Analysis / Egypt / Gaza / Israel / Politics / Sinai / Middle East / Africa / Global SecurityOn the Egyptian-Israeli border, an increase in jihadist activity is causing both sides to question longstanding certainties of their respective national security paradigms. The recent escalation of jihadi activity in the Sinai Peninsula has added a new dimension to the geostrategic uncertainties of the post-Mubarak era. Like the fallen regime, the Sinai served as a buffer in the cold peace between the Egyptian and Israeli populations. With the Egyptian military in the Sinai recently suffering its greatest personnel losses since the 1970s, public anger has been channeled into loud calls to renegotiate the 1978 Camp David Accords to restore full Egyptian sovereignty over the peninsula....
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With a death toll paring that of low intensity warfare, and with one of the highest rates of drug addiction in the world, Iran stands on the frontline of the War on Drugs. Yet, Human Rights Watch and other international groups are calling for the freezing of funding to Iran’s drug control programs. In recent years, the global War on Drugs has been given increasing importance. A re-evaluation of the international response to the drug problem is underway. It is not within the scope of this short piece to deal with the generalities of the War on Drugs, but rather with its regional, local shortcomings, which can in brief be defined as the side effects of a historically long-lasting...
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United States / Europe / 360° Context / Middle East / Americas / Africa / Global Security / Asia / OceaniaBy AnonymousBy Hanna Wolf and Viet-Chi Pham In the global illicit drug trade, governments as well as the police are facing changing smuggling patterns, which include newly developed trafficking routes and ruthless groups of organized crime. Background As the demand for heroin, cocaine and amphetamines becomes increasingly global, so does drug trafficking. Affecting large areas of the world, the drug trade leaves behind high corruption and soaring crime rates, destabilizing entire countries. Cannabis comprises the largest illicit drug market. Since cannabis can be cultivated in almost any part of the world, its production is not as centralized, whereas Colombia and Afghanistan produce a huge portion of...
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By Julie LopezIn organized crime, Los Zetas are like cancer. Once bad cells take hold of an area, their metastatic nature soon spreads them in all directions. Los Zetas defy smaller countries like Guatemala, where they reckon with weaker security forces than in neighboring Mexico. The new Guatemalan administration (which took office in January), led by a retired general, President Otto Pérez Molina, must now face this challenge. Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, former head of the Gulf Cartel in Mexico, never envisioned the birth of a monster when he recruited Mexican Special Forces to watch his back. In 1998, he had got into fights with his closest business partners, some of...
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How in times of drastically increasing violence in Venezuela citizen security has become a private good. In Caracas, Venezuela’s residential neighborhood of Bello Monte, journalists from multiple publications can be found every morning having coffee at the city’s only morgue. In this way, homicide figures are gathered for the city. More accurate numbers are unknown, as the Venezuelan government stopped releasing official crime related statistics to the public in 2005. Becoming South America's Most Dangerous Country Since Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela in 1998, the nation has replaced Colombia as South America’s most dangerous country, with over...
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By Hanna WolfThe lucrative cocaine trade from Latin America to Europe has furthered the globalization organized crime, causing an increase in violence and a deterioration of the rule of law in countries throughout the Caribbean and West Africa. While reports on drug trafficking from Latin America to North America are common, the increasingly important routes to Europe are seldom mentioned in the media. In reality, Europe has become the world’s second largest market for cocaine, valued at $36 billion and only $4 billion smaller than the US market. In Peru and Bolivia, chewing coca leaves is a daily occurrence. For the people in the Andean region, chewing the leaves is the European cultural...
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Nameless and faceless, migrants traveling through Mexico inhabit the shadowy intersections of drug war violence, government corruption, and poorly designed policy. The price of winning the drug war includes the nearly 250,000 migrants passing through Mexico each year, a factor which the incoming administration will be forced to address. In one horrific incident on August 25, 2010, Mexican marines discovered 72 bodies at a ranch outside San Fernando, Tamaulipas—14 miles from the border with Texas. The investigation revealed that the 58 men and 14 women found were undocumented immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador. The sole survivor, an...
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By Trevor CohenIn the attempt to fight drug wars, Mexico's President-elect Peña Nieto has to decide severely on an aggressive fight or a more compromising approach towards the cartels. The presidential election of Enrique Peña Nieto from the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) is unlikely to alter Mexico’s approach to fighting the drug war. While the 45-year-old governor of the State of Mexico promises to reduce drug related violence and has offered a few new plans, his strategy is not much different from that of his predecessor, Felipe Calderón. Key components of his plan include doubling the security budget, creating a 40,000 member paramilitary gendarmerie to...
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By Trevor CohenThe power and range of large, highly profitable criminal organizations has exploded in Latin America. Cartels and street gangs dominate entire neighborhoods, cities and even provinces, destroying the tranquility of ordinary life. Before the last few decades, political violence proved the most significant security risk in Latin America. But, as civil wars ended and insurgencies demobilized, criminal violence took its place. During the transition to democratic governance that swept the region in the 1980s, the security forces of repressive regimes were largely dismantled. Meanwhile, in North America, the cocaine craze was reaching its peak. Coca farmers in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia produce...
