North America

Background of US-EU Relations Regarding Iran

This week, a member of the notorious Central American gang MS-13 was apprehended trying to cross the border into the US with the migrant caravan. This has sparked a resurgence of the dialogue about the presence and danger MS-13 poses to the United States. One of the key points crucial to understanding MS-13 is that it is not an organized group as the mob or drug cartels are. MS-13 has become more of a methodology or ideology for gang members. There is no evidence of any sort of hierarchy within the gang. Where the gang exists, the hierarchy is very localized and most violence is committed against other gang members, defectors, and any others who openly oppose them or resist joining them.

In 1971, the thralls of the Vietnam war, President Nixon declared a new type of war: “The War on Drugs.” Ever since, the United States has fought to reduce both supply of and demand for illegal drugs.[i] Despite recent initiatives decriminalizing marijuana in many states and Canada’s new law legalizing cannabis, illegal drug use, convictions in the United States, and violence both in Mexico and throughout the numerous drug corridors is up.[ii] The history of the War on Drugs illustrates the difficulty in responding to the issue, and the complexity of possible answers.

The new deal negotiated by the countries of North America as a potential replacement of NAFTA has received a fair mixture of praise and criticism. The new trade agreement, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA), comes as the result of President Donald Trump’s major campaign promise to reshape NAFTA in order to better the United States’ position within NAFTA. There are a few major changes to this agreement that will benefit all involved parties, but as with most agreements, there are some criticisms that will be studied as it moves forward.

Just this past week, President Donald Trump announced that the United States, Canada, and Mexico have reached a compromise on the long-promised NAFTA renegotiations. Although a step down from a total rebranding of NAFTA, as President Trump had promised on the campaign trail, there are several new aspects of the deal that experts from all three countries both cheer and lament [1]. It has been renamed, now the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which itself has been criticized for its difficulty to say[2]. Notwithstanding names and promises, NAFTA has been a favorite scapegoat for President Trump for a long time, and now he has the chance to wave it in the face of his critics and attempt to win over more support.

The United States has been warned of a “cyber-Pearl Harbor” for years. Earlier in 2018, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats announced that “the lights are blinking red.”[1] Russia’s attempts at interference in U.S. elections has already been confirmed by the U.S. intelligence community, and the theft of American intellectual property is a daily occurrence. The world is already “weaponizing the Internet,” and the United States needs to adapt or lose its edge.[2]

There is a cooperation between five major countries in the world that was created to share top secret information in an effort to better protect the world’s best interests. Known informally as Five Eyes, this collaboration of intelligence organizations exists officially under the UKUSA treaty. The term “Five Eyes” is a shortened version of the very long name “Aus/Can/NZ/UK/Eyes Only” (UK Defense Journal) and officially includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Stemming from The Special Relationship that the United States and the United Kingdom share, each country takes the surveillance of different regions of the world, with UK focusing on “Europe, Western Russia, Middle East and Hong Kong [while] the United States [watches over] the Middle East, China, Russia, Africa, and the Caribbean [Australia and New Zealand share] South and East Asia and the South Pacific.” Canada takes charge of parts of Russia, China, and focuses on Latin America (UK Defense Journal).