Governance

Every day more than 1 million packages reach the United States through the global postal system without the important security information law enforcement agencies need to stop and inspect packages that could contain deadly drugs and other illicit items. Given that a recent Customs and Border Protection operation at the postal service’s international hub at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport found 43 percent of foreign packages were noncompliant with U.S. regulations, the magnitude of this issue is especially troubling.

"In an act of utter redundancy last month, the UN Security Council passed a resolution approving an EU naval operation that was already underway. The Security Council rubber-stamped Operation Sophia, which was ostensibly devised to stop Mediterranean smugglers. But the operation is unlikely to deter smugglers from continuing their illegal trade, and might actually encourage migration by making it easier for migrants to reach Europe."

"By translating this unfortunate episode into significant changes in the way the current administration carries out its rule of law and security policies...the Mexican government can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat."

"We need new international law to protect displaced people. A Displaced Persons Convention would define a category of people to be granted temporary legal protection because their forced displacement threatens international peace and security. It would also provide procedures for cost-sharing and geographic distribution of those who qualify for permanent resettlement abroad. It could also include provisions for preventing population displacement, such as pre-committing states to creating safe zones for displaced people in the event of conflict or disaster...."

"...[P]rojecting an image of competence and progress against drug trafficking may be particularly important at the moment, as the Peña Nieto administration struggles to come up with a strategy for how to handle the autodefensas — the armed civilian organizations that are taking on the DTOs without government sanction or control."

"The cartels, along with the violence and corruption they perpetrate, are threats to both Mexico and the United States. The problem is a complicated one and taps areas of profound policy disagreement. The way to make progress in combating the DTOs is to ignore issues like gun control and illegal immigration and follow the money. Stanching the cartels' profits will do more to end the bloodshed than any new fence or law."