About the Program
The Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative (CAMPI) aims to address the gap in policy-relevant scholarship on Central America and Mexico's migration and security challenges. CAMPI aspires to create educational opportunities, research activity, and community engagement that will spur sophisticated inquiry into the causes, dimensions, and consequences of violence and migration in these regions, as well as the adequacy of past, present, and potential policy responses at both the national and international levels.
The Mexico Security Initiative (MSI) will remain a component of CAMPI. Writings and events on these themes will be led by MSI’s post-doctoral fellow Jake Dizard.
MILITARIZATION IN LATIN AMERICA: SECURITY MISSIONS AND DEMOCRATIC OVERSIGHT
CAMPI's post-doctoral fellow Jake Dizard led a Policy Research Project (PRP) at the LBJ School of Public Affairs during the 2019-20 academic year focused on the Militarization in Latin America: Security Missions and Democratic Oversight. The research project is intended to provide context to students, researchers, journalists, and practitioners seeking to understand the increasingly frequent appearance of armed forces members in situations ranging from anticrime operations to street protests to inter-institutional political battles in Latin America.
Students used open sources, complemented by interviews with practitioners and academics in the U.S. and Latin American countries, to gather the quantitative and qualitative data presented on this site.
Featured ITEMS
Top CAMPI issues
- Transit migration through Mexico, particularly related to Central American violence and insecurity.
- Policy responses to asylum seekers and human smuggling at the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Rule of law, human rights, and violence in Mexico and Central America.
- Civilian oversight of the military in Mexico and across Latin America.
Publications
The CAMPI program publishes research briefs, reports, articles, and codebooks intended for use by researchers, policymakers, and the public.
Events
U.S. – Mexico Relations: Achievements and the Road Ahead
On April 15, the Strauss Center and Clements Center for National Security hosted Martha Bárcena Coqui, Mexican Ambassador to the United States, and Kimberly Breier, Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Americas Program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),…
Challenges in U.S./Mexico/Central America Policy at the Beginning of the Biden Administration
On March 2, the Strauss Center welcomed Joy Olson, Consultant; Former Executive Director of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), for a virtual talk on “Challenges in U.S./Mexico/Central America Policy at the Beginning of…
What’s the Point of DHS?
On November 16, the Strauss Center welcomed Ben Rohrbaugh, a fellow of Strauss’ Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative and the author of More or Less Afraid of Nearly Everything: Homeland Security, Borders, and Disasters in…
