2009-2010 USD/NDIC Collaboration

The Security in Mexico Research Project is a joint project between University of San Diego (USD) and the National Intelligence Defense College (NDIC) to call on the Intelligence Community to step up outreach activities, gain new insights, expand knowledge, and explore new ideas through enhanced engagement with community experts and outside professionals. The research focuses on security issues affecting both the United States and Mexico while examining the association between national and homeland security and will serve as a platform to expose and educate current and future Intelligence Community professionals to the value of collaboration and outreach, while addressing an important issue facing our nations. This experience will mark the beginning of an ongoing relationship, encouraging collaboration on current and salient issues of our time.

Trans-Border Institute’s Director David Shirk, and Randy Willoughby Political Science Department Professor on behalf of USD and Richard Owens, Gene Anzano, Stephen Di Rienzo, faculty of the National Defense Intelligence College [NDIC] of the Department of Defense, tutored USD grad students Janice Deaton (M.A. in Peace Studies) and Kimberly Heinle (M.A. in International Relations), along with Nate Jones (University of California, Irvine, Ph.D. student) and NDIC students Robert Kinsey, Jim Anderson, Christine May (NDIC’s strategic intelligence program). Each paper is a candidate to become a chapter in an anthology to be considered for publication by the Center for Strategic Intelligence Research and NDIC Press. Among the topics analyzed by the students we can find: Human Rights violations by Mexican Military, Mexican detention procedure (arraigo), contra insurgency and contra intelligence tactics against Drug Trade Organization, Arellano Felix Organization, and Mexican renewable energy as a security issue.

The students and faculty met in San Diego on December to launch the project with the students presenting their initial work and discussions with Peter Nunez, former Assistant Secretary of Treasury for Enforcement, and Karen Hewitt, Federal Prosecutor. They met in at Guadalajara for the second field research session, where they presented their advances and had a keynote address and discussion with Sigrid Arzt, former Public Security Advisor of President Felipe Calderon and current Commissioner of the Federal Institute of Access to Information, a talk with Marcos Pablo Moloeznik, Universidad de Guadalajara’s researcher and professor, regarding a critic vision of Calderon’s strategy and the militarization of public security, a talk with Dr. Alfredo Rodriguez, expert forensic and medical examiner specialized in organized crime forensic investigation, a visit to the morgue to witness the forensic work and their role in the investigation of organized crime; a visit to the Attorney General’s Office, meeting with the AG himself and with other authorities, and tour within the office including operational and tactical demonstrations, among others. They will meet again in Washington D.C. for the closure of the project with the public presentation of the papers by the students.

To view the presentations, please click on the links below: