Recent Publications

Security Challenges in the Caribbean: Threats, Migration, and International Cooperation
July 6, 2023 — R. Evan Ellis The Caribbean faces growing security challenges, ranging from geopolitical tensions to armed violence and the gang epidemic, exacerbated by drug trafficking and competition for drug routes. The region has also been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, mass migration, and money laundering. Caribbean countries require integrated solutions... MORE

Security Challenges in the Caribbean: Threats, Migration, and International Cooperation, R. Evan Ellis, SSI Worldwide

Honduras: A Pariah State, or Innovative Solutions to Organized Crime Deserving U.S. Support?
June 1, 2016 — Author: Dr R Evan EllisSince his election in 2013, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has made significant changes in the strategy and institutions of the country in combating the interrelated scourges of organized crime and violent gangs, which have prejudiced Honduras as well as its neighbors. Principal among these are the creation of a... MORE

Threat Posed by Mounting Vigilantism in Mexico
September 1, 2011 — Author: Dr George W Grayson Until the 1980s, Mexico enjoyed relative freedom from violence. Ruthless drug cartels existed, but they usually abided by informal rules of conduct hammered out between several capos and representatives of the dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled the country until the 1990s. Relying on bribes,... MORE

Op-Ed: The Criminals South of the Border: Lessons from Mexico
August 9, 2011 — Dr. Max G. ManwaringYou might also like: "La Familia Drug Cartel: Implications for U.S.-Mexican Security."Authorities have no consistent or reliable data on the Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO)-gang phenomenon in Mexico. Nevertheless, the TCO-gang phenomenon in that country is acknowledged to be large, complex, and increasingly violent... MORE

State and Nonstate Associated Gangs: Credible “Midwives of New Social Orders”
May 1, 2009 — Author: Dr Max G Manwaring The monograph examines contemporary populism and neopopulism, 21st century socialism, and a nonstate actor (al-Qaeda) seeking regional and global hegemony. They are: first, paramilitary gang permutations in Colombia that are contributing significantly to the erosion of the Colombian state and its democratic institutions,... MORE

A Contemporary Challenge to State Sovereignty: Gangs and Other Illicit Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) in Central America, El Salvador, Mexico, Jamaica, and Brazil
December 1, 2007 — Author: Dr Max G Manwaring Another kind of war within the context of a “clash of civilizations” is being waged in various parts of the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere around the world today. Some of the main protagonists are those who have come to be designated as first-second-, and third-generation street gangs, as... MORE

Gangs, “Coups D’ Streets,” and the New War in Central America
July 1, 2005 — Author: Dr Max G Manwaring Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the July 2005 newsletter.Read Now MORE

Street Gangs: The New Urban Insurgency
March 1, 2005 — Author: Dr Max G Manwaring The primary thrust of this monograph is to explain the linkage of contemporary criminal street gangs (that is, the gang phenomenon or third generation gangs) to insurgency in terms of the instability it wreaks upon government and the concomitant challenge to state sovereignty. Although there are differences between gangs... MORE