Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This paper analyzes the elements that constitute Mexico’s military notion of national security. The original formulation of the concept of national security and related notions, such as national power, is found in the works of university academics in the United States between the 1930s and 1940s. In the case of Mexico, the background of the notion of internal security is studied and traced to the Spanish monarchy in the colonial era, passing through the 19th and 20th centuries constitutionalism. The article highlights how the development proposal attached to the doctrine became an axiom in the Latin American versions, justifying the intervention of military personnel in functions considered of a civil nature. Finally, how the doctrine of national security served to justify a reconfiguration of civil-military relations in the region’s countries, including Mexico, is examined. This work is an initial effort to review a theoretical framework that has not essentially changed since its formulation in the early 1980s.

In recent decades, pressures associated with changes in illicit drug markets, failed attempts to reform security and justice apparatuses, and the absence of civil leadership have resulted in a progressive and sustained trend towards militarization. During the six-year term of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), militarization not only gained particular strength but also stemmed from specific decisions made by the president that contributed to jeopardizing the future of democratic governance in Mexico. This article examines some of AMLO’s key decisions regarding the armed forces, with a special focus on the integration of the National Guard. The central argument is that, in the short and medium term, the cumulative effect of these decisions has altered the patterns and norms that have governed the relationships between politicians and soldiers for decades, thereby disturbing the balance between civil and military institutions. In the long term, in addition to compromising the institutional strength of the armed forces, it has raised doubts about the possibility of establishing effective democratic control over the military in Mexico.

Quentin Skinner. 2025. Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 332 pp. Cédric M. Koch. 2025. “The People” vs. the Liberal International Order?: Varieties of Populism and the International Politics of Democratic Legitimacy. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 778 pp. Wolfgang Streeck. 2024. Taking Back Control?: States and State Systems after Globalism. Traducción al inglés de Ben Fowkes y Joshua Rahtz. Londres: Verso. Paula Diehl y Michael Saward. 2025. Bodies, Spaces, Claims: The Theory and Practice of Performing Political Representation. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 480 pp. Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Z. Huq y Tarun Khaitan, eds. 2024. The Entrenchment of Democracy: The Comparative Constitutional Design of Elections, Parties and Voting. Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Martha Singer Sochet y Rosa Merlín Rodríguez, coords. 2024. Temas selectos contemporáneos de Estado, Sociedad y Derecho. Ciudad de México: Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 320 pp.. Scott Williamson. 2024. The King Can Do No Wrong: Blame Games and Power Sharing in Authoritarian Regimes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 350 pp. Patricia Owens. 2025. Erased: A History of International Thought without Men. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 432 pp. Alec Stone Sweet y Wayne Sandholtz. 2024. The Law and Politics of International Human Rights Courts: The Dilemma of Effectiveness. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 304 pp.  

This article examines the institutional conflict between the Executive and Legislative branches and Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE, in Spanish) during the period of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, with a particular focus on the autonomy of the electoral authority. The analysis is framed within the perspective of democratic erosion, defined by Nancy Bermeo as the “state-led debilitation or elimination of the political institutions sustaining an existing democracy.” By tracing the evolution of this conflict at its different stages, the article highlights the strategies employed by the involved actors and the mobilization of resources at their disposal, whether administrative, legal, legislative, political, or discursive.

This article analyzes Cuba’s trajectory from its participation in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CAME in Spanish), as part of the socialist bloc, to its current interest in the BRICS, a forum of emerging economies that combines economic pragmatism with a multilateral cooperation agenda. It examines the transformations in Cuba’s integration strategy following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as the challenges and opportunities posed by its inclusion in the BRICS. Although the approach of this bloc differs from the solidarity-based model of the CAME, its integration offers Cuba a platform to strengthen its South-South cooperation and diversify its international relations. The success of this participation will depend on the island’s ability to harmonize its ideological legacy with the dynamics and demands of a transforming international system, positioning itself as a relevant actor in the emerging multipolar order.

Mexico was one of the 28 countries that participated in the first session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 and has been a regular member since then. More than three decades later, and given the IPCC’s influence on decision-making processes, it is essential to identify challenges and opportunities for strengthening national scientific capacities in climate change, including its participation in the IPCC. Through interviews and an analysis of the Mexican participants in the preparation of the assessment reports, this article reviews the trajectory and profile of Mexico’s scientific participation in the panel, examining factors such as disciplinary composition, institutional affiliation, gender, and distribution within working groups and the Bureau. Finally, the paper concludes with a set of recommendations for policymakers in scientific and climate-related areas in the country.

From the German perspective, relations with Latin America and the Caribbean have a systemic dimension: a wide range of public and private actors participate in the formulation, decision-making, and implementation of foreign policy toward the region, known as Lateinamerikapolitik. This article analyzes the constituent elements of this framework—its interests and dynamics—through the lens of foreign policy analysis (FPA), with particular attention to organizational and bureaucratic decision-making models. It advances a multidimensional analytical model for examining Lateinamerikapolitik in the 21st century, with the aim of enriching scholarship on German–Latin American relations.

La obra de Mario Sznajder, Historia mínima de Israel, editada por El Colegio de México en 2017, es un excelente texto para comprender la joven historia del Estado de Israel fundado en 1948. Sin embargo, el lector se quedará con curiosidad de conocer más sobre la larga historia del judaísmo que se aborda de manera muy somera. ...

This article analyzes the decisions and measures of the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in the energy sector between 2018 and 2024, within the framework of his political project known as the “Fourth Transformation” (4T). These policies sought to place the state–and its enterprises–at the center of Mexico’s energy system and to promote an endogenous development model aimed at restoring energy sovereignty. Within this context, the article addresses three questions: (1) What specific mechanisms and institutional instruments did the 4T employ to implement such a model? (2) To what extent do these tools align with prevailing understandings of “endogenous development”? (3) How successful was this approach in advancing toward greater energy sovereignty? The article offers an assessment of the achievements, shortcomings, and missteps of the administration’s energy policy, based on its stated objectives. It concludes by briefly identifying the multiple challenges this policy leaves to the next administration.

An analysis of the close relationship between capitalism and space has shed light on the various mechanisms of valuing space, such as the financialization of housing, which imposes types of dispossession and expulsion for the majority of the population that does not have secure ownership, given the control and speculation of economic assets. In this sense, in the approach of various case studies presented in Periferias urbanas en América Latina. Desafíos teóricos y metodológicos para la acción sociopolítica, the authors examine the production process or urban peripheries from various perspectives, where there are overlapping power relations between the State and capital. This collective project is also part of a body of literature that has recently sought to understand the multiple sociospatial processes articulated in metropolitan zones around Latin America from a variety of theoretical and methodological angles. These works seek to analyze how inequalities and contemporary mechanisms of urban dispossession are reproduced.