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  Antarctica: Strategic Competition's Next Frozen Frontier

  Fabiana Sofia Perera

  Antarctica is the only demilitarized region in the world. Countries initially committed to its preservation as a region of peace to prevent conflict from the Cold War from spilling over to the most remote place on Earth. As the world again enters an era of competition among great powers, countries must renew their commitment to Antarctica as a region of peace. The first likely opportunity to reconsider what activities can occur will likely be in 2048, 30 years after the environmental protocol entered into force. Though the date is still 25 years removed, the events that will shape that discussion must take place now before it is too late.

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  China's Charm Offensive in Latin America and the Caribbean: A comprehensive Analysis of China's strategic Communication Strategy Across the Region [Part III: Image, Academia, and Technology]

  Pablo Baisotti

  This paper explores China’s public relations strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) through diplomacy, promoting study networks, cooperation among academies, and establishing a significant number of Confucius Institutes. This is supported by a vast network of print, audiovisual and digital media owned by China or LAC groups. Yet, among the LAC population, knowledge of China is minimal. In sectors dedicated to research, politics, and the economy and finance, there is a slightly favorable image of China due to economic interest.

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  Triads, Snakeheads, and Flying Money: The Underworld of Chinese Criminal Networks in Latin America and the Caribbean

  Leland Lazarus and Alexander Gocso

  This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the Chinese individuals, gangs, and companies engaging in illicit activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our methodology was to research academic literature, news articles, press releases, official statements, and podcasts in Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin and English, as well as conduct off-the-record interviews with U.S. and LAC intelligence and law enforcement officials to ascertain growing trends in Chinese criminal behavior in the region.

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  China’s Charm Offensive in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Comprehensive Analysis of China’s Strategic Communication Strategy Across the Region [Part II: Influencing the Media]

  Pablo Baisotti

  This report will analyze China’s communication strategy in LAC through the action of the Chinese media and its foreign media networks as a tool to influence LAC in favor of the CCP’s ideological objectives. It will also seek to understand the functioning of the vast network of print, audiovisual, and digital media owned by the Chinese government and LAC groups that serve the purpose of the Chinese regime. News outlets such as the Xinhua News Agency, the People’s Daily, China Radio International, China Central Television (CCTV), CGTN Español, and China Today are strategic and geopolitical tools that seek to repeat, amplify, and consolidate the authoritarian power of Xi. In addition, it is crucial to understand the direct action of representatives of the Chinese government to marginalize critical information through direct and indirect pressure. It will also study how China tries to transmit a positive image through campaigns in all possible media, incorporating LAC journalists, academics, politicians, and all those who can promote its image and narrative.

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  China's Charm Offensive in Latin America and the Caribbean: A comprehensive Analysis of China's Strategic Communication Strategy Across the Region [Part I: Propaganda and Politics]

  Pablo Baisotti

  This paper analyzes the expansion of Chinese media and public diplomacy in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Through its “discourse of power” and an attempt to extend its soft power across the continent, Chinese and some LAC media (print, audiovisual, and digital) sustained, amplified, and exalted the “achievements” of the Communist regime and the possibility of sharing them as a “community of common destiny” for all the world’s peoples. China strives to promote a positive image through communication and propaganda campaigns, incorporating LAC journalists, academics, politicians, and others who can improve its image as a reliable and supportive partner of the “Global South.”

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  Regional Migration Governance in the Americas: The Los Angeles Declaration on Protection and Migration's Challenges and Opportunities

  Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian and Diego Chaves-González

  As the LA Declaration enters a new phase of maturation, it is imperative for the hemisphere to intensify efforts to overcome coordination and communication challenges among countries and levels of government. Addressing existing barriers, such as securing sustainable funding among others, is essential for countries and agencies to tackle specific migration challenges effectively. Additionally, regional policymakers must prioritize investments in migration to achieve broader societal objectives in the medium and long term

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  Red Flags Among Golden Passports: An Analysis of Chinese Influence In Five Caribbean Citizenship By Investment Programs

  Leland Lazarus

  This paper explores the extent wealthy Chinese Citizenship by Investment (CBI) holders in the Caribbean use their economic clout to influence local politics. Five Caribbean countries have benefited immensely from CBI, a program that contributes as much as a third of some countries’ gross domestic product (GDP). In recent years, a growing number of wealthy individuals from China have been applying for CBI in the Caribbean. As wealthy Chinese individuals continue to move their money and citizenship to the Caribbean, their political clout may increase in the future, and the Chinese central government may be able to leverage this influential community to exert economic and political pressure in the Caribbean.

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  The Impact of War in Ukraine on Latin America and the Caribbean

  David J. Kramer, Vladimir Rouvinski, and Andrei Serbin Pont

  Russia ́s invasion of Ukraine caused a shockwave that left no region in the world untouched as international surprise led to various reactions by national governments of different political and ideological inclinations. As such, Latin America and the Caribbean was no exception. The region has been fertile terrain for Russian diplomatic and military engagement over the last two decades, and several countries have found Russia a credible partner and supplier of a wide range of goods and services. This collection of short essays analyses how the conflict created challenges as well as potential opportunities in the region.

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  Making the Grade: What's Motivating China's Educational Outreach in LAC?

  Margaret Myers and Brian Fonseca

  This paper considers the multiple motivations for China’s educational outreach in the region, drawing from Chinese policy and analysis and many dozens of examples of academic linkages forged between China and Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years. Whether initiated by Chinese or LAC institutions, these programs are an increasingly central feature of China-LAC relations, a part of the extension of China’s BRI to LAC, and a useful measure of China’s varied and evolving interests throughout the region.

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  China's Investments and Land Use in Latin America

  Monica Nunez Salas

  Increased demand by China for commodities has impacted natural resources and local people in Latin America, at a time when climate change has created an urgency for sustainable practices. This report aims to contribute to a nuanced view of Chinese major investments and trade, analyzing the soy, copper, and beef industries. In many cases, it shows how unsustainability is not the result of the practices of Chinese companies but rather the nature of the resource, local legal frameworks, or global industry standards. Latin American countries must devise development plans for these industries and not rely solely on voluntary sustainability standards adopted by the private sector to preserve Latin America's vulnerable ecosystems in light of climate change.

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  Contactless, Crypto, and Cash: Laundering Illicit Profits in the Age of COVID-19

  Calum Inverarity, Gareth Price, Courtney Rice, and Christopher Sabatini

  Travel restrictions and lockdowns have forced changes to the traditional means illicit groups have used to launder their ill-gotten profits. This paper explores whether COVID-19 may have affected these processes through three main channels: increased reliance on cryptocurrencies to move and launder funds tied to illicit activity; the expanded use of the internet through e-commerce sites to continue and expand trade mispricing practices to move illicit funds; and the use of FinTech and peer-to-peer payment services to transfer illicit funds.

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  Extortion: The Backbone of Criminal Activity in Latin America

  Lucia Dammert

  Extortion is a phenomenon that can be understood from various disciplines, such as economics, criminology, the political sciences, and sociology. Each of these fields of knowledge emphasizes either the system or economic models under which extortionists and victims operate, the short- or long-term relationship sought by establishing simple or complex extortion mechanisms, the political relationship between extortionists and victims, or citizens’ perceptions of the institutional framework, which can serve as a gateway for criminal groups to create ties of protection through extortion. This report sheds light on the importance of extortive practices in Latin America. It is based on qualitative research since 2019. The report shows that extortive practices are a regionwide trend, albeit with national, specific characteristics. Although it is primarily a non-violent crime, an increasing tendency—specifically linked to practices against women—should make it a priority for the public security agenda.

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  Russia’s Strategic Communication in Latin America and the Caribbean

  Vladimir Rouvinski

  After Vladimir Putin’s Russia returned to Latin America and the Caribbean, strategic communication became a key engagement tool, enabling Moscow to apply sharp power in the region successfully. As a result, during the last decade, Moscow created mechanisms that effectively communicate values, interests, and narratives to facilitate Russia’s foreign policy objectives in the Western Hemisphere. This research traces the advance of Russian information strategy in the Latin American information space during the last two decades.

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  The Cycle of Risk: Impact of Climate Change on Security Challenges in the Caribbean

  Wazim Mowla

  The intersection of climate change and security has geopolitical considerations for Caribbean countries and the United States. Addressing climate change through recovery, resilience, and adaptation requires significant financing. In an indebted region, most governments will look elsewhere before agreeing to accept new loans from international financial institutions. Caribbean decision-makers are pragmatic actors, meaning there are opportunities for U.S. counterparts, such as China and Russia, to strengthen diplomatic ties by offering aid or low-interest loans to governments and others on a smaller scale, such as Venezuela and Cuba. Resilient recovery, access to low-interest financing, expansion of the regional security system, and enhancing military-to-military coordination between the United States and the Caribbean would help the region address current and forthcoming challenges.

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  The Ecosystem of Illegal Gold Mining

  Livia Wagner

  Criminal groups quickly recognized that controlling large swaths of land and illicit and legitimate enterprises linked to illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon enabled them to generate larger profit margins with fewer risks due to the lack of a government law enforcement presence. Gold constitutes an ideal medium for criminal groups to launder proceeds obtained from other illegal activities. Compared to other natural resources and illicit goods, gold is valuable by volume. Also, COVID-19 is not only having an impact on the global economy and surging unemployment. It is driving gold prices to historical record highs since 2012, leading to an influx of illegal miners to unlicensed mining sites where they invade protected indigenous lands, stripping swaths of forest bare, poisoning rivers with mercury, and laundering illegal gold through mineral shops. The nexus between illegal mining and other organized crime complicates the design of strategies to address this problem effectively. Specifically, intersections with human trafficking and forced labor, migrant smuggling, and the drug trade have been identified. However, the form and degree can vary significantly.

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  Tussle for the Amazon: New Frontiers in Brazil's Organized Crime Landscape

  Ryan C. Berg

  Brazil is witnessing a “tussle for the Amazon”—a new and deadly phase in the history of its organized crime groups and their operations. While the country is no stranger to violent criminal organizations, recent years have seen groups building increasingly sophisticated networks, both within and beyond Brazil’s borders. In the strategic state of Amazonas, these developments have sparked a power struggle between several of the country’s largest criminal organizations that has concerning implications for the stability of Brazil as a whole. This “tussle” is more than a mere clash between Brazil’s transnational organized crime groups. It is a threat to regional stability and imperils neighboring Latin American countries. Appreciating the Amazon region’s current role in the dynamics of Brazil’s criminal underworld is the first step toward deliberate, informed action by the United States and Brazil against a shifting criminal environment.

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  Developing Methodologies to Assess Organized Crime Strategies in Latin America

  Mark Ungar

  Because of the increasingly organized and lethal nature of criminality in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized crime policy may be the single most important safeguard for regional security. A policy-relevant understanding requires disentangling these crimes’ many overlapping sources, removing embedded layers of methodological obstruction, and attuning responses with organized crime practice. Using embedded mixed methods to incorporate the ways in which available quantitative data and policies reflect the qualitative conditions of the agencies and processes that produce it, this report works to identify these broken, frayed or invisible inter-connections through a methodological framework as broadly flexible as the criminality it aims to measure and stop.

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  Fishing for Security

  Daniel Schaeffer

  Often viewed through a myopic lens as an environmental issue or one relegated to fisheries authorities, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing affects all coastal nations in the Western Hemisphere and has national security implications on the United States. A regional problem requires a regional solution and greater cooperation across agencies, private industry, and governments. Actions to address IUU fishing in Latin America have the potential to achieve greater aims of maritime security in the region. The report will frame the problem of IUU fishing by first highlighting its overall impacts globally and regionally. Food security, employment, national revenue, and other illicit activities are discussed. The report concludes with recommendations for interagency and regional coordination.

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  China's COVID-19 Diplomacy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Motivations and Methods

  Margaret Myers

  This report considers China’s varied interests, whether humanitarian, commercial, or political, when engaging with Latin America and the Caribbean during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a review of international media coverage and Chinese embassy reports, it provides observations on the nature of Chinese personal protective equipment (PPE) and vaccine-related outreach over the past year, and of trends in Chinese messaging in social and traditional media in the region.

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  Environmental Explanations of Central American Migration: Challenges and Policy Recommendations

  Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian and Diego Chaves-González

  In this report, the authors argue that when countries and relevant stakeholders do not prioritize disaster preparedness and foster community resilience, extreme climate events can deplete people’s material and socioeconomic well-being. This results in internal displacement as people seek economic opportunities and social protection, which may exacerbate conflict and social tension in the cities they move to. Ultimately, this helps explain one unexamined consideration driving migration to the United States from the Northern Triangle countries.

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  Militarism and the Militarization of Public Security in Latin America and the Caribbean

  Carlos Solar

  While the effects of militarism and militarization toward security are evident in the Americas, most notably transmitted via images of soldiers complementing and replacing law enforcement agencies at times of social crisis, this report seeks potential answers to what this means in theory and practice. The author does this in two ways. First, it unpacks an up-to-date understanding of militarism and militarization aiming to feed academic and policy debates with a perspective on what citizens in Latin America and the Caribbean think. Second, it expands knowledge of militarism and militarization informing security and defense planners, specifically those preparing tailored policies toward conflict and peace in the region.

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  The Return of Geopolitics: Latin America and the Caribbean in an Era of Strategic Competition

  Hal Brands and Ryan C. Berg

  With the advent of the Biden administration, it is clear the idea of focusing U.S. foreign policy on strategic competition enjoys widespread bipartisan support. U.S. statecraft is increasingly directed at the threats posed by powerful state rivals—especially China—as opposed to Salafi-Jihadist extremists and other non-state actors. Yet geopolitical rivalry is not simply something that happens over there in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. It also happens over here, within the Western Hemisphere. As the United States enters a new period of geopolitical rivalry, it must update its understanding of strategic denial to fit the facts on the ground. This paper offers an intellectual starting point for that endeavor. It is intended to help the U.S. national security community think through the imperative of strategic denial and hemispheric defense in the twenty-first century.

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  Hopelessness and Corruption: Overlooked Drivers of Migration from the Northern Triangle of Central America

  Joy Olson and Eric L. Olson

  This work briefly reviews the complex web of factors traditionally considered migration drivers. The authors’ interviews with migrants and their own work on anti-corruption efforts in Central America led them to hypothesize that something is missing from this traditional framework. Interviews with migrants in transit suggested that beyond any individual or combination of factors stood a profound lack of hope that the situation in their home country would improve.

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  Going Local: An Assessment of China's Administrative-Level Activity in Latin American and the Caribbean

  Margaret Myers

  Local-level engagement is becoming an increasingly central feature of the broader China- LAC relationship, as Chinese central government, quasi-governmental, provincial, commercial and other actors seek to engage more extensively in LAC markets, shape external views of China, and advance China’s various policy objectives and political interests, including vis-à-vis Taiwan. Though prompted by Chinese government policy, the nature of this engagement is exceedingly wide-ranging, however, featuring a complex cast of generally uncoordinated characters with distinct interests and approaches. The outcomes at the subnational are also distinct. Some local-level partnerships have been exceedingly productive, resulting in numerous commercial deals and other forms of cooperation. Others have yet to produce concrete results, despite many years of exchange.

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  Venezuelan Migration Crisis: Medium and Long-Term Impacts

  Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian and Paula García Tufró

  The recent debate on Venezuela has primarily focused on the promotion of a political transition to reestablish a functioning democracy, respect for human rights, and restore a viable economy. However, the discussion and resulting actions should also focus on the need to address the medium to long term regional effects of the Venezuelan migration crisis. The human dimensions of the country’s protracted political, economic, and humanitarian crisis have been daunting, with 4.5 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees having fled their homeland between 2015 and 2019. This massive exodus is having the greatest impact on Latin American and Caribbean countries. The burden appears likely to intensify, moreover, as the number of displaced Venezuelans is projected to reach 6.5 million Venezuelans by the end of 2020.

  This study focuses on how the exodus will impact the economic, social, security, and political standing of countries with the highest concentration of Venezuelan migrants—namely Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.