5/28/2010
Resource Update: Policy basics for study
Brundtland Report
Definition and Principles for sustainable development
Principles for environmental security
OAS 20003 Declaration of Security in the Americans
Principels for Human Security
4/29/2010
Issue Update: Feds vs Arizona immigration/search bill (April, 2010)
Reid-Schumer-Menendez. 29 April, 2010. Conceptual Proposal for Immigration Reform-Draft. National Journal.com. Pp 4-5.
Available at: http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/issues/images/graphics_2010/cd-100428-rsm-bill-outline-draft.pdf
Coordination of Agencies: DOI, DHS (ICE, Border Patrol), DOA, DEA (BATFE)
P 3: The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be given more agents for the Southwest Border Initiative
P4: Limitation of nonfederal agencies: Because the federal government will have fulfilled its obligation to secure America’s borders, states and municipalities will be prohibited from enacting their own rules and penalties relating to immigration, which could undermine federal policies.
P 5-6: This proposal also ensures that we will secure our borders in a manner that is consistent with America’s best values and traditions. The Departments of Homeland Security, Interior, and Agriculture will work together to make sure we are protecting our borders while at the same time preserving our national parks and our protected wildlife sanctuaries. We will provide grants to local towns and counties to mitigate the impact of unauthorized immigrants crossing the border and to assist them in transferring unauthorized immigrants to law enforcement authorities. Owners of property near the border will be protected from civil lawsuits for injuries that took place on their property that were related to the duties of law enforcement officers seeking to combat drug smuggling and illegal immigration. Indian tribes that have been adversely affected by illegal immigration will be reimbursed for law enforcement activities and restoration of areas damaged by illegal immigration. Northern border cities will be treated just like their southern
border counterparts, and will be reimbursed for handling case dispositions of criminal cases that are federally initiated but federally declined-referred.
To ensure that our border security efforts are not substantially affecting the quality of life and economic viability of the cities near our borders, the proposal establishes a Border Communities Liaison Office that will be responsible for conducting outreach to residents of border towns and a standardized complaint process for addressing complaints from the public related to the operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Communities will be given the ability to create alternatives to detention programs to lower the costs of immigration detention and, if detention is necessary, there will be custody standards providing for basic minimum standards of care at all Border Patrol stations, holding cells, checkpoints and short-term custody facilities.
4/28/2010
Issue Update: International data sharing on money laundering
Australia and Guatemala share financial data to fight terrorism
By David Olsen
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/articles/articles-finance-cash-flow/austrac-australia-financial-data-guatemala-terrorism-1379.html
Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has signed an agreement with the financial intelligence unit (FIU) of Guatemala to exchange financial information relating to money laundering and terrorism financing.
The memorandum of understanding between the two countries will allow for certain exchanges of financial intelligence and other forms of cooperation.
AUSTRAC is Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulator and specialist financial intelligence unit. AUSTRAC works with law enforcement and other agencies to protect the integrity of the Australian financial system and fight serious crimes such as drug trafficking, tax evasion, fraud and people smuggling.
‘Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America and, like Australia, is working towards combating money laundering and terrorism financing, and other serious crimes such as drug and human trafficking.’ said AUSTRAC’s Chief Executive Officer, John Schmidt.
‘This agreement bolsters AUSTRAC’s capacity to support the global fight against these crimes and to protect the integrity of Australia’s financial system.’ he said.
Both AUSTRAC and Guatemala’s FIU (Intendencia de Verificacion Especial) are active members of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, a global network of 116 FIUs which promotes international cooperation between its members.
AUSTRAC now has 57 agreements to exchange financial intelligence, and one to exchange regulatory information, with its foreign counterparts.
4/28/2101
Issue Update: Unintended consequences
Study links drug enforcement to more violence
By MARTHA MENDOZA
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 27, 2010; 2:00 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042700296.html
MEXICO CITY -- The surge of gunbattles, beheadings and kidnappings that has accompanied Mexico's war on drug cartels is an entirely predictable escalation in violence based on decades of scientific literature, a new study contends.
A systematic review published Tuesday of more than 300 international studies dating back 20 years found that when police crack down on drug users and dealers, the result is almost always an increase in violence, say researchers at the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, a nonprofit group based in Britain and Canada.
When communities get tough on drug crime, that drives up the black market profits, prompting fierce battles to control the lucrative trade, their study says. And when powerful and successful drug bosses are taken out, it's all too common for more brutal and less sophisticated criminals to step in.
"Law enforcement is the biggest single expenditure on drugs, yet has rarely been evaluated. This work indicates an urgent need to shift resources from counterproductive law enforcement to a health-based public health approach," said Gerry Stimson, executive director of the International Harm Reduction Association which is hosting a conference this week in Liverpool, England, where the study was released....
4/10/2010
Issue Update: Sustainable comparison: the politics of fear or the politics of dignity
The Obama Doctrine, Revisited
The administration's effort to transform American foreign policy has been much more successful abroad than it has been at home.
Spencer Ackerman | April 7, 2010
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_obama_doctrine_revisited
4/5/2010
Issue Update: Lessons from the War on Drugs
A strong and legitimate state is the key to the long-term success of any policy. In the short term, therefore, the principal challenge is to develop and implement policies that will increase the probability that the state will be strengthened and that democracies will survive. Achieving these objectives in the Andes will require mechanisms that not only improve the performance of security institutions but also increase the state’s legitimacy and widen the base of support for its policy efforts. This is a difficult, but not impossible, task.
Since neither current policy nor the political, economic, or social context in which it is being implemented is likely to change in the foreseeable future, what feasible options are available to policymakers both in Washington and in the target countries?
One area in which some promise still exists is alternative development. Especially in the three countries surveyed here, alternative development has become a key component of anti-drug policy and has been portrayed as the soft side of the interdiction effort. Over the last decade, alternative development has both expanded and moved beyond simple crop substitution to a number of creative initiatives that have resulted in job creation, export generation, and even sustainable development.
These initiatives represent a dramatic improvement over the old way of pursuing alternative development, which was limited to substituting illicit crops with licit ones. However, until such time as these programs garner a broad base of committed stakeholders who will vigorously defend them against the alternatives being offered by highly politicized coca growers’ movements, insurgents, or armed groups in the region, they can only produce narrow, short-term successes. Engaging the affected populations to develop a broader support base for these programs will continue to be the most critical challenge for policymakers.
An example of this challenge is the previous U.S. resistance to working with MAS-controlled organizations in Bolivia. And, on the other side, until MAS and its constituency in the Chapare and the Yungas fully support U.S.-funded alternative development efforts, these will continue to be promising but limited programs. While there is some progress in Bolivia on this front, in Colombia the permanent threat of violence from groups like the FARC, ELN, and AUC complicate the situation. No viable way to engage these groups currently exists. Peru’s case is more like the Bolivian experience; engagement with “cocaleros” remains a viable option.
One of the main lessons from decades of alternative development strategies is that these efforts are unsustainable in areas where state institutions are absent. This is certainly the case in some parts of Colombia, where armed groups prevent the implementation of these programs. In Bolivia and Peru, however, broad-based alternative development programs could, in fact, encourage state presence. This is probably most possible in Bolivia where these efforts could help strengthen municipalities in the Chapare even if they are controlled by anti-U.S. parties such as the MAS. In the long term, strong local governments could bode well for anti-drug efforts.
(Public Security Planning Considerations; 19. Aug 2009. National and Defense Strategy. Partnership for Peace National Security and Defense Strategy).
3/26/2010
Issue Update: Can terrorism be eliminated?
January 7, 2010
http://www.truthout.org/1050912
Coleen Rowley:
Launching PR “wars” on terrorism, drugs, crime, poverty, etc. misleads the average person into believing that these ills can be totally conquered or eliminated. In reality, even if the experts were so enlightened/lucky as to make no mistakes and do everything right, it’s only possible to reduce the frequency of such adverse things.
It IS possible to make terrorist plots less likely to succeed but NOT possible to prevent them all.
1) Reckless “pre-emptive” actions based on mere guesswork, hunches, or prior agendas;
(2) A penchant for fusing agencies, creating multi-agency “centers,” and re-naming bureaucracies — all without much thought to finding out what went awry, who was responsible, holding people accountable, and fixing problems; and
(3) A surge in the fast growing “Surveillance-Security Complex,” a highly lucrative business now rivaling the Military Industrial Complex itself. “Total Information Awareness”-type programs are a sales trick that brings dividends only to the contractor/creators. Projects involving billions of pieces of private communications and other data that are vacuumed up and put into newly created, massive databases of individuals are a fool’s errand.
3/25/2010
Issue Update: US/M Border Policy Broadens the definition of security
Primary Document Clinton's Remarks:
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/03/138963.htm
Hillary Clinton Mexico Visit: US and Mexico Shift Drug War Approach
Wednesday 24 March 2010
by: Sara Miller Llana | The Christian Science Monitor
During the high-level Hillary Clinton Mexico visit Tuesday, the Secretary of State endorsed a new drug war strategy, which includes a more targeted focus on community-building.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0324/Hillary-Clinton-Mexico-visit-US-and-Mexico-shift-drug-war-approach
Both teams talked of getting a greater handle on drug consumption in their respective nations, though Clinton flatly said that decriminalization of drugs was not on the table for consideration.
“We want to make sure that when we talk about security, it’s not just security in the most obvious sense, to be safe in your home, but it’s economic security, it’s health security, it’s all of the ways that individuals have a chance to lead a productive and successful life,” Clinton said.
Even though some Mexicans dismiss the meeting as disguised US unilateralism, both tout the era of “co-responsibility,” says Ms. Ruiz, and many feel relief that both nations are now acknowledging the need for stronger communities. “The reality is we have such a long border, you cannot think of this as a problem of Mexico and a problem of US,” she says. “It is a problem for both countries.”
