Recent Publications

Brazil’s Attempt to Control X: The Deterioration of the Liberal World Order
September 13, 2024 — Elon Musk’s clash with the Lula government raises the issue of how to promote democracy and free speech in the new technological era... MORE

Bolivia and US Dilemmas in Engaging with Problematic Regimes in Latin America
September 12, 2024 — I recently had the opportunity to engage with a senior Bolivian colleague connected with the government of Luis Arce regarding the country’s economic and political difficulties and its relationship with the United States. Their fundamental question was, “Why can’t Bolivia’s relationship with the United States be better?” The instinctive response... MORE

The Impact of the Political Orientation of Latin America, on the Advance of the People’s Republic of China in the Region
August 27, 2024 — Latin America is currently undergoing unprecedented political shifts. This phenomenon is characterized by the recent electoral victories of left-ofcenter candidates in Mexico in 2018; Argentina in 2019; Peru, Honduras, and Chile in 2021; and in Brazil and Colombia... MORE

The Impact of the Political Orientation of Latin America, on the Advance of the People’s Republic of China in the Region
R. Evan Ellis

Venezuela’s Elections: Hoping for the Best, Preparing for the Worst
July 25, 2024 — As Venezuela moves toward promised national elections on July 28, my heart is with the hopes of Venezuelans for a miracle that will translate their courageous act of voting, into a restoration of democracy. Everything I have seen unfold in the country over the past 25 years of my career in government and the private sector following Venezuela leads... MORE

China, the Illiberal Counter-Order, and the Role of Values in the Strategic Response
July 22, 2024 — The dynamics of the international order in the third decade of the 21st Century are changing profoundly. The magnitude and complexity of the change are illustrated by Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, in both its initial failure, and in the ability of the Putin administration in Russia to sustain its costly campaign. The new international... MORE

Engagement with China has had a Multifaceted Impact on Latin American Democracy
July 15, 2024 — While Beijing may not deliberately promote authoritarian regimes in Latin America, implicit risks to the dynamics of democracies arise out of engagement with China.In its public discourse, unlike the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the People’s Republic of China has avoided directly challenging Western-style democracy as a system of governance... MORE

Engagement with China has had a Multifaceted Impact on Latin American Democracy
R. Evan Ellis

Paraguay’s Security Challenges and the Government Response
July 8, 2024 — The land-locked South American country of Paraguay receives little attention in Washington D.C. relative to its strategic importance for the region and the U.S. It is larger than Germany, and like Germany, its impact, and the nature of its challenges, begin with its central location in the continent. That centrality gives Paraguay enormous,... MORE

Slide for Paraguay’s Security Challenges and the Government Response

China-Argentina Space Engagement
May 23, 2024 — This work examines China - Argentine Space Collaboration, with a focus on the PRC Operated Deep Space Radar Facility in Neuquén. It argues that in interest of national development, and in the context of hopes for benefit from Argentina’s broader relationship with China, in an era of less pronounced strategic competition between the PRC and the... MORE

China-Argentina Space Engagement | R. Evan Ellis
Background photo of China and Argentina’s deep space ground station antennas from Wikimedia, April, 2022 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Estaci%C3%B3n_de_Espacio_Profundo_de_la_CLTC-CONAE-NEUQUEN_en_abril_2022_02.jpg)

Argentina: Security Challenges and the Government Response
May 13, 2024 — Summary: In addition to Argentina’s profound economic crisis, the nation faces serious security challenges. These include use of the country as a drug transit zone, including cocaine from Bolivia and Peru bound for Europe and marijuana from Paraguay. Such criminal activities have caused violent struggles between groups for transport routes in... MORE

In addition to Argentina’s profound economic crisis, the nation faces serious security challenges. These include use of the country as a drug transit zone, including cocaine from Bolivia and Peru bound for Europe and marijuana from Paraguay.

Paraguay: A Promising Government Navigating a Perilous Path
May 1, 2024 — The greatest gift that Cartes can give the country and President Peña is to empower Peña to take the real and symbolic steps to frontally tackle corruption. Paraguay, a land-locked country at the heart of South America, is strategically important for the region, the U.S., and even the Indopacific, in ways that exceed the attention given to it by Washington D.C. Larger than Germany, Paraguay’s geographic centrality means that the country’s commercial and political dynamics... ... MORE

Paraguay: A Promising Government Navigating a Perilous Path
The greatest gift that Cartes can give the country and President Peña is to empower Peña to take the real and symbolic steps to frontally tackle corruption.
https://globalamericans.org/paraguay-a-promising-government-navigating-a-perilous-path/

Argentina Political and Economic Challenges
March 12, 2024 — From February 24 through March 2, I traveled to Argentina to speak with government, business and academic experts regarding the situation in the country, including 27 interactions involving some 300 people. Argentina is at a pivotal moment, as its new libertarian President Javier Milei seeks to turn around the country’s unfolding economic collapse... MORE

Argentina Political and Economic Challenges | R. Evan Ellis

The Case for Containing, Not Coddling, Maduro
March 4, 2024 — From 2019 to 2020, I had the honor of serving on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s policy planning staff (S/P). One of my priority focus areas was the dictatorship of Nicholas Maduro and the dangers it posed to the Venezuelan people and to the region. The Maduro regime’s expulsion of the office of United Nations High Commission for Human Rights from the country, and the arrest and forced disappearance... MORE

The Case for Containing, Not Coddling, Maduro
The inability of the U.S. to facilitate a return to democracy in Venezuela does not justify accommodating dictatorship in the name of engagement. by R. Evan Ellis