The Mexico-U.S. Partnership: Enhancing Our Common Security 

IFPA convened a workshop on December 2, 2005, in Washington, D.C., that brought together U.S. and Mexican officials and nongovernment experts to address key elements of the Mexico-U.S. security partnership. The one-day meeting was part of a broader IFPA project to examine twenty-first-century requirements for North American homeland defense and security. The event was cosponsored by the Mexican Embassy with the generous support of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. U.S. and Mexican speakers provided an overview of homeland security/defense organizations and programs as well as a critical review of their successes together with areas that need additional attention, highlighting lessons learned. The meeting helped to shed light on promising options to enhance the homeland security of Mexico and the United States.

 

The workshop focused on:

• Border security
• Post-Hurricane Katrina crisis management and disaster response
• Combating twenty-first-century threats such as trafficking in drugs, weapons, and persons; international terrorism; and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
• Economic development in Central and South America as a key element of a comprehensive security and prosperity framework for the Western hemisphere