Monday, August 10, 2009
Guadalajara Summit
One problem when every country in the world is a potential friend, ally and strategic partner of the United States is that it becomes difficult to focus resources on investing in critical countries.
In security terms, we group the United States, Canada and Mexico within the rubric of NORTHCOM--envisioning North America as a single defense community. We hear the rhetoric about cooperation on drugs, crime, immigration and the economy--but it seems that we are still quite ambivalent about pursuing closer North American integration. (On a side note, we Americans critize the Europeans for their unwillingness to expand the EU to Turkey and Ukraine--but their reasons and concerns are similar to ours regarding Mexico, it seems).
So I see statements coming from this summit but don't know to what extent the Western Hemisphere is at the top of the administration's priorities.
In security terms, we group the United States, Canada and Mexico within the rubric of NORTHCOM--envisioning North America as a single defense community. We hear the rhetoric about cooperation on drugs, crime, immigration and the economy--but it seems that we are still quite ambivalent about pursuing closer North American integration. (On a side note, we Americans critize the Europeans for their unwillingness to expand the EU to Turkey and Ukraine--but their reasons and concerns are similar to ours regarding Mexico, it seems).
So I see statements coming from this summit but don't know to what extent the Western Hemisphere is at the top of the administration's priorities.
