Soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a Russian cargo plane idled on a runway in Khartoum, Sudan. According to CNN, the plane’s manifest claimed it was loaded with cookies. When inspectors boarded the plane to confirm its contents, they found some cookies. But beneath the cookies, they also found one [ … ]
In Russia’s frenzied attempt to flex its muscles, get access to natural resources and increase its geopolitical relevance, it relies heavily on private military companies (PMCs). This strategy produces a small foreign footprint and offers the Kremlin plausible deniability while enriching a small circle of people. President Vladimir Putin’s Russia [ … ]
A labyrinth of more than 1.3 million kilometers of fiber-optic cables anchored to the sea floor carries about 95% of telephone and internet communications around the world every day, moving massive amounts of data every second. Everything from financial transactions to military orders passes along this underwater web of more [ … ]
On July 22, the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies concluded its 2022 cyber policy course, Cybersecurity Policy in the Americas: Challenges for Policy-Strategic Analysis, led by Dr. Boris Saavedra. The course bolsters whole-of-hemisphere cybersecurity efforts by empowering and connecting regional partners who seek to strengthen cybersecurity and [ … ]
In the past two decades, People’s Republic of China- (PRC) based companies have invested $160 billion in Latin America. Twenty one of our neighbors there have pledged themselves to China’s “Belt and road Initiative.” The PRC is attempting to “rewire” the region to its own economic benefit, securing access to [ … ]
Panama’s maritime business is being transformed by the complex interaction between multiple factors. These include the growing economic and political power of China and U.S.-China competition, the long-term structural impacts of COVID-19 on both the region and global trade, U.S. policies to contain immigration from the Northern Triangle, climate change, the rise of leftist populism [ … ]
For the past 15 years, the willingness of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to give billions of dollars in loans across Latin America created the perception that the country has been spending unlimited resources to woo allies in a region where the United States historically carries significant influence. Far [ … ]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, life as we knew it changed dramatically as activities, both licit and illicit, moved to the virtual world. We witnessed shopping, college classes, diplomatic meetings, financial transactions, and organized crime activities transition online almost overnight. The pandemic has empowered transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) to establish new [ … ]
On January 12, 1982, the Brazilian Antarctic Program (PROANTAR, in Portuguese) was formally created by Decree No. 86.830. The first official Brazilian expedition left for Antarctica later that year, on December 20. Forty years following PROANTAR’s inception seems to be the opportune time to remember the history of Antarctic interests [ … ]
The engagement of extra-hemispheric state rivals to the United States in Latin America is an increasingly acknowledged strategic challenge to the U.S. and the region that requires a whole-of-government response, including a supporting role by the U.S. military. The character of that challenge, however, is substantially different than the efforts [ … ]
The treaty that governs the largest desert in the world is coming up for renewal in 2048. The year the Antarctic Treaty entered into force, 1961, most of the world was still watching television in black and white. On its face, this seems like something that we should be able [ … ]
When two Iranian warships steamed around the southern tip of Africa in early June 2021, in a possible voyage to Venezuela, alarm bells rang throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. What once seemed impossible looked to be inevitable as regional intelligence officials scrambled to determine the implications of Iranian naval [ … ]
For more on security and defense issues around the globe, click on the links below:
