Arturo C. Sotomayor

Mexico's security failure : collapse into criminal violence

Introduction: security failure versus state failure Paul Kenny and Monica Serrano Part I: The Background 1. The Mexican state and organized crime: an unending story Paul Kenny and Monica Serrano 2. Transition to dystopia: 1994-2008 Paul Kenny and Monica Serrano Part II: Security Failure at Home... 3. Arbitrariness and inefficiency in the Mexican criminal justice system Ana Laura Magaloni 4. Accounting for the unaccountable: the police in Mexico Ernesto Lopez-Portillo 5. Security versus human rights: the case of contemporary Mexico Alejandro Anaya Munoz Part III: ... and Abroad 6. Drug trafficking and US-Mexico relations: causes of conflict Jorge Chabat 7. Mexicos war on terrorism: rhetoric and reality Athanasios Hristoulas 8. The Mesoamerican dilemma: external insecurity, internal vulnerability Raul Benitez and Arturo Sotomayor Conclusion: Authoritarian evolution Paul Kenny and Monica Serrano

The Nepalese Army: From counterinsurgency to peacekeeping?

Can peacekeeping participation help reform military institutions in democratizing states? Drawing on evidence from Nepal – one of the worlds largest troop contributors to UN peacekeeping operations – this essay illustrates that participation in peace missions can sometimes undermine security sector reform and deteriorate civil–military relations. Furthermore, this analysis shows that peacekeeping participation will not necessarily reorient troops away from their conventional internal roles (such as counterinsurgency) or improve civilian control over the armed forces. Hence, civilians can lose control over soldiers just as frequently when they are deployed overseas as when they are at home.

Mexico and the R2P Challenge: The Commitment Trap

In recent years, Mexico has presented mostly favourable views of the R2P concept. This is a radical change, since historically it had been a strong advocate of non-intervention norms. This essay argues that Mexico’s R2P position has been shaped and constrained by two incoherent domestic narratives: democratization and the war on drugs. These two narratives have led to an inconsistent and ambiguous record of compliance with human rights norms and R2P principles. Mexican authorities, who had been championing for the implementation of R2P, have now become victims of their own international commitments. This Latin American country thus needs to reconcile its two distinct domestic agendas if it aims to be seen as an R2P advocate. The goal of this study is to explore the inherent complex and at times contradictory relationship between domestic demands for democratization and securitization and R2P commitments, using Mexico as a critical case study.