Power, Identity, and Special Relationships: The US-Canada and US-Mexico Relationships in Historical and Comparative Perspective
How does the United States relate to the West? We tend, in the IR literature, to think about it in terms of the “ordering” of the West: Is it a civilization, an empire, a strategic bargain, a security community, or something else? Will the West hold together or break apart, and — putting the same question in a different form — can the United States continue to exercise leadership of the West? Much of our thinking about these questions is based on the assumptions that there is a coherent, singular West, and that the US relates to that western community in a coherent, singular way. But as Peter Katzenstein has argued, the West is both plural and pluralist, and the United States “fits” into the West in a variety of different ways, revealing many different sides of itself in the process. We begin here with the expectation that closer, comparative examination of the way that the US relates to specific partners can help us to untangle some of these complexities and contradictions.
Homeland Security: Evolving Roles and Missions for United States Northern Command [Updated October 11, 2007]
Abstract : In 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) established United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM). Four years later, the organization continues to mature and adapt to evolving National Homeland Security Policy. Current issue areas for Congress include DOD reorganization, formalizing interagency processes and an increasing reliance on Reserve Component forces. This report will be updated as events dictate.
Analysis: The Agenda 2007 Proposals: Evolution or Revolution?
On 10 February 2004 the Commission published its proposal for the financial perspective 2007-2013. A week later it adopted the third report on economic and social cohesion. These two documents form the basis of the so-called ‘Agenda 2007 reforms’. They will be the greatest challenge for the enlarged EU after the intergovernmental conference, since they will determine the financial basis for EU policy-making until the middle of the next decade. The Agenda 2007 proposals certainly hint at courageous reforms, because they place a previously unheard-of emphasis on performance and quality. Under the proposals, structural operations should generate value for money, and the funds should focus on projects which generate added value at a European level. Overall the Commission’s proposals point in the right direction, because they balance, on the one hand, solidarity for the new Member States and weak regions in the old Member States with, on the other hand, investments in future tasks. Moreover, they constitute a paradigm shift. For the first time, the Common Agricultural Policy will not be the dominant expenditure category. Now it is up to the Member States to examine the proposals politically and find a compromise between sometimes very divergent interests. It is to be hoped that, during the debate over expenditure limits and division of funds, national interests do not outweigh European interests.