Message from the Editor

Welcome to the Fall 2003 edition of Security and Defense Studies Review.  This issue follows both the second anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the New York Trade Towers and the Pentagon, and the recent meeting of the OAS Committee on Hemispheric Security in Mexico.   The articles featured this time provide different perspectives on the actual and perceived changes in our conceptualizations of security and defense in the Western Hemisphere in the wake of the terrorist events and other changes in the regional and global security environment. 

Álvaro J. Martínez, in his “Seguridad Hemisférica: ¿respecto a qué?, ¿por quién? Un paso adelante en la búsqueda del modelo,” seeks to create a taxonomy of the whole range of security and defense issues that permits the analysis of security threats and concerns along three dimensions: Human Security, National Security, and International Security.  He considers these matters “people-controlled,” and people-controlled matters are subject to policy formulation and considerations as opposed to, say, natural disasters -- which are inevitable, but not controllable by policy choices.  Captain Martínez offers suggestions for a policy model that might enhance our addressing of hemispheric security in the post 9-11 environment. 

Fabián Carlos Calle’s essay provides an interpretation of the post 9-11 United States’ National Security Strategy, published in September, 2002.  Along with a review of contemporary theoretical reference points and perspectives of leading (largely U.S.) scholars, he examines the post 9-11 focus on the phenomena of failed and rogue states, international terrorist networks, and weapons of mass destruction.  In the Latin American sphere, he argues that the 2002 NSS provides a basis for making compatible Latin American and U.S. security concerns by providing a framework for addressing the security and defense challenges of the post 9-11 era.

Brazilian scholars Domicio Proença Júnior and Érico Esteves Duarte also look at a single nation’s national defense policy documents in “Comentários a uma Nova Política de Defesa Brasileira.”   They provide a detailed analysis of the 1996 Brazilian National Defense Policy document and of modifications proposed by the Minister of Defense in 2001 in the wake of September 11.  They then move from discussion of the policy document to a discussion of the creation of a Rapid Deployment Force, which the authors consider a critical element in transitioning from the old policy guidance to the new.  In future defense policy exercises, they call for better strategic evaluation by the MOD (which didn’t exist when the first defense policy document was prepared) and for enhanced joint strategic planning to identify and provide the needed national military capabilities, both highly desirable in any national planning effort, but often difficult to achieve.

In his article “Confronting Terrorism in Latin America: Latin America and United States Policy Options,” Boris Saavedra explores the ramifications of the 9-11 attacks on policy toward terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.  He deals with some of the problems inherent in devising a terrorism policy, including definitions, internal versus external terrorism, and collaborative as opposed to unilateral efforts.  He argues that all countries -- including Latin American countries -- need to devise a holistic, political-military plan to deal with this complex phenomenon, and he opens a discussion of how such a plan might evolve and how the different perspectives of Hemisphere countries might address the terrorism issues.

Finally, Shawn Smallman’s essay “Canada’s New Role in North American Energy Security” provides a look at a major economic security issue in a time of violence and instability in areas of the world long crucial to North American energy supply -- the Middle East and Africa.  After examining Canada’s role as the current largest energy (electricity, natural gas, and oil) supplier to the US, he analyzes the growing potential, capacities, and production of the Alberta oil sands and the Newfoundland offshore sites.  He argues that the oil sands are tremendous potential reserves that could be more fully exploited even though problems of pricing, production and politics currently hamper more robust utilization, presenting alternative scenarios in an important security area.   We welcome the inclusion of this focus on the Canadian role in the security of our hemisphere.  

As usual, we encourage commentaries on these and other articles and essays published in the Security and Defense Studies Review.  We know that REDES 2003 has generated discussion of a number of themes that might provide focus for future issues of SDSR.  These include further discussions of the terrorism phenomenon in the region, the different countries’ experiences with introducing women in the military, pension system reforms, and questions of hemispheric versus regional security.  In addition, we have recently been reminded that the Central American countries have been executing a number of interesting changes in security and defense cooperation under the overall  rubric of the Central American Peace Accords, and those experiences – which are little known, but potentially of interest in South America – will provide the focus of a future edition of our Journal.   We invite commentary and continued submissions from our colleagues in the security and defense community around the world. 
 

      Margaret Daly Hayes
                  Director, Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies and
                  Editor, Security and Defense Studies Review

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