Small Wars Journal

El Centro

New SWJ−El Centro Fellows and Intern

Mon, 05/08/2023 - 2:50pm

New SWJ−El Centro Fellows and Intern: May 2023

Small Wars Journal-El Centro (SWJ–El Centro) is pleased to announce the addition of two new fellows and one intern to the Cadre of El Centro Fellows. The new fellows are Dr. Howard Campbell.and Dr. Mahmut Chengiz Dr. Howard Campbell.  The new intern is Keaton O.K. Bunker.

SWJ-El Centro
  • Howard Campbell is a cultural anthropologist at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).socializing in Latin American studies with a primary focus on Mexico. He is author of Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juárez and  Downtown Juárez: Underworlds of Violence and Abuse.
  • Mahmut Cengiz is specialist in terrorism, transnational crime, and global security at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University with both operational and academic experience.
  • Keaton O.K. Bunker is a young scholar pursuing an internship focusing on weaponized drone use by terrorists and related violent non-state actors in primarily French speaking regions of Africa.

Our new fellows and intern will help SWJ−El Centro expand our research by deepening our inquiries into US-Mexico border security, transnational organized crime, ands emerging drone usage by violent non-state actors. 

Dr. Robert J. Bunker

Dr. Nathan P. Jones

Dr. John P. Sullivan 

Senior Fellows, SWJ–El Centro

Forza alla Legge: Studi Storici su Carabinieri, Gendarmerie e Polizie Armate

Sun, 04/23/2023 - 10:44pm

Forza alla Legge: Studi Storici su Carabinieri, Gendarmerie e Polizie Armate

Forza alla Legge: Studi Storici su Carabinieri, Gendarmerie e Polizie Armate (Force to Law: Historical Studies on Carabinieri, Gendarmerie and Armed Police) edited by Flavio Carbone has just been released in FVCINA di MARTE 14 by the Società Italiana di Storia Militare or Italian Society of Military History (SISM). 

Forza alla Legge

The edited collection was curated by Lt Col Flavio Carbone, PhD, a Carabinieri officer and Member of the SISM and Nuova Antologia Militare (NAM) Boards and president of the Committee of Military Archives within the International Commission of Military History. The volume was published as part of the FVCINA di MARTE series co-ordinated by Professor Virgilio Ilari, President of SISM and Director of NAM.

The text contains a preface by Professor Ilari, an introduction by Dr. Carbone, and fourteen chapters on the history of gendarmerie, carabinieri, and constabulary (or stability police) forces in Italian, French, or English. The concluding chapter, "The Establishment of the Mexican Guardia Nacional (2012-2019): A Gendarmerie Force for Crime Wars and the Fourth Transformation of Mexico" by SWJ–El Centro Senior Fellows John P. Sullivan and Nathan P. Jones recounted the development of Mexico’s Guardia Nacional (National Guard).

Source: Flavio Carbone, Ed., Forza alla legge Studi storici su Carabinieri Gendarmerie e polizie armate (Fvcina N. 14). Rome: Società Italiana di Storia Militare (SISM), 2023.

Changing Faces of Immigrants Crossing through Ciudad Juárez and into the United States: Reflections on Migrants, Culture, and Crime

Fri, 03/24/2023 - 5:02pm
In recent years, unauthorized US border crossings by non-Mexican Latin American nationals have increased significantly. This article examines the impact that these new migrants have had on Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. It focuses especially on the period immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic to the present. Since 2018, Central Americans, Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans have passed through Juárez in record numbers, and many have settled at least temporarily there. Through ethnographic observations and interviews the author analyzes the impact the new migrants have had on border society and how Juarenses have responded to each of the immigrant groups. Acts of charity and generosity toward the migrants are common, but so too are xenophobia and hostility, especially from local politicians, tabloid journalists, local law enforcement, and members of organized crime. As large numbers of migrants, especially Venezuelans at present, have flooded into downtown Juárez, the impact has been transformative to local business and street culture and led to brewing social tensions on the border that may worsen in the future.

About the Author(s)

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