Ellis is a prolific defense intellectual who recently joined the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff. In this comprehensive and thoughtful book, he underscores the serious threat to U.S. national interests posed by organized criminal groups in Latin America. Ellis usefully catalogs the major groups and evaluates the uneven efforts by national governments to combat them. He finds, controversially, that the formerly distinct roles assigned to militaries and police forces are outdated in an era in which borders are ever less relevant to security. He also judiciously warns against desperate, short-term measures, arguing instead for “persistent, adaptive and effectively sequenced” approaches coordinated across government agencies. Ellis pleads for close collaboration among partner governments based on “mutual respect and trust” and for governments to learn from one another’s experiences. The Trump administration’s new Latin America hand issues a pointed warning against “attempting to isolate the United States behind a wall that is high enough to permit its residents to be indifferent concerning the conditions beyond it.” Ellis is a prolific defense intellectual who recently joined the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff. In this comprehensive and thoughtful book, he underscores the serious threat to U.S. national interests posed by organized criminal groups in Latin America. Ellis usefully catalogs the major groups and evaluates the uneven efforts by national governments to combat them. He finds, controversially, that the formerly distinct roles assigned to militaries and police forces are outdated in an era in which borders are ever less relevant to security. He also judiciously warns against desperate, short-term measures, arguing instead for “persistent, adaptive and effectively sequenced” approaches coordinated across government agencies. Ellis pleads for close collaboration among partner governments based on “mutual respect and trust” and for governments to learn from one another’s experiences. The Trump administration’s new Latin America hand issues a pointed warning against “attempting to isolate the United States behind a wall that is high enough to permit its residents to be indifferent concerning the conditions beyond it.”
