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This article was first published on The Diplomat on February 4, 2025. Recent statements by U.S. President Donald Trump and Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver Carone, as well as the trip by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Central America, have focused attention on the risks posed by the activities of China in Panama. Two points should be made clear at the…
This article was first published in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s magazine Forum on January 7, 2025. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping’s crackdown on military corruption in the past 18 months could hinder his military modernization goals for 2027 and beyond, according to the China Military Power Report released by the United States Defense Department in December 2024.…
This article was originally published in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s magazine Indo-Pacific Defense FORUM, on August 26, 2024. The China-Russia joint statement of February 2022 has widely been interpreted as a signal of deeper cooperation between the countries, which are the major challengers to the world order. Some have gone so far as to assess it as a sign of an…
This article was originally published in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s magazine Indo-Pacific Defense FORUM, on November 12, 2024. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not an Arctic nation. Its northern border is nearly 1,500 kilometers from the Arctic Circle and even farther from the Arctic Ocean. Yet the PRC is encroaching upon the frozen region to control its vast resources…
This article was first published in U.S. Northern Command’s magazine The Watch, Volume 5, 2024. The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) has emerged as a premier security cooperation tool that delivers information-sharing techniques, joint training exercises and intelligence cooperation to counter a multitude of shared challenges. A U.S. Department of Defense institute with the Secretary of the Army…
This article was first published in U.S. Northern Command’s magazine The Watch, Volume 5, 2024. Threats to hemispheric security are myriad: trafficking in people, weapons and drugs; illegal fishing and mining; climate change and environmental fallout; corruption; cybercrimes and digital disinformation; predatory violence and extortion; and targeted challenges to international law, including human rights violations. Countering the threat networks…
This article was originally published in Per Concordiam, a publication of U.S. European Command in coordination with the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, on September 12, 2024. China and Russia are expanding their defense cooperation through joint military exercises, visits of high-level defense officials, and arms trade and cooperation on military technology. These joint military exercises have…
This article was first published in Indo-Pacific Defense Forum, a publication of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, on August 14, 2023. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging existential warfare against the rest of the world. It is a war for global control, and the CCP aspires to win it without fighting — or at least without having to engage in major…
This article was first published in Per Corcordiam, a publication of U.S. European Command, on September 12, 2024. The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) economic and political position in Europe is extremely important to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and effort is being made to enhance that position. The PRC engages in political alignment, intelligence gathering, information control and measured…
This article was originally published by the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, Florida International University in September 2024. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Over the past decade, Russian-based companies have provided sophisticated surveillance technology to several Latin American countries. These technologies are critical to the survival of the repressive regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, and possibly criminal nonstate actors…
The existing asymmetries between China and Russia are an element to distinguish the influence capabilities of both countries in Latin America. While the People's Republic of China is understood as a rising global power, provided with abundant financial resources to capture elites and access strategic sectors within Latin American nations -through investment projects, loans and "non-reimbursable cooperation", the regional reach…
This article was first published in the Indo-Pacific Defense FORUM on December 18, 2024. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to face international criticism for violating the sovereignty of nations across the globe with its “overseas police service stations,” clandestine offices established in many cases without the approval or knowledge of countries that become their unsuspecting hosts. Rights advocates…
