March 12 - 20 2011
Earn 3 Credits  

APPREHENSION AND UNCERTAINTY: Mexico in Regional and Global Perspective

Despite receiving only intermittent attention in the United States, Mexico is perhaps our country’s most serious security issue.  Having recently emerged from seventy years of one party rule, our southern neighbor is struggling to consolidate democracy while the federal government confronts ruthless drug cartels intent on subverting the nation. Twenty-four percent of Mexico’s population lives in states whose governments are dominated by one of the six drug cartels, which fund huge private armies to the tune of approximately $40 billion a year. By contrast, the Marida Plan, a new U.S. initiative to help combat the cartels, provides only one-hundredth that amount. 

The police and judiciary are outgunned and corrupt. A rash of assassinations of judges, police chiefs, prosecutors, and city officials highlights the crisis. Eighteen journalists have been killed in the past five years. Not surprisingly, many newspapers refuse to report on the cartels. For its part, the Mexican army has resisted taking on the cartels, fearing the likely impact of exposing soldiers making $300 a month to cartels capable of paying them between five and ten times that much. 

Mexico faces the dangerous prospect of becoming a failed state—a failed state of 100 million people, half living in poverty, stretching along a 2,000 mile border with the U.S.  This makes Mexico one of the most important—and intractable—security concerns facing the new U.S. Administration. 

This study abroad program presents an ideal opportunity for SPP students in all masters’ programs—as well as other interested individuals—to explore some of the most consequential policy problems facing Mexico and the U.S today. Indeed, Mexico offers perhaps the richest international experience possible to students of public policy, regardless of their specific areas of interest and expertise.

PROGRAM FEE:

$3500

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Photo Gallery
Study Abroad on the School of Public Policy web site

President of Mexico Felipe Calderon greets SPP Director of External Programs
Michal McElwain-Malur at meeting with Study Abroad students.

Dr. Jorge G. Castañeda, previous Presidential candidate and leading academic on
Public Policy in Mexico, joins Study Abroad students for a dinner discussion.

Michal McElwain-Malur and Study Abroad students meet with the Honorable
Carlos Pascual, Ambassador of the United States of America to Mexico