Maxwell School News and Commentary

"Because of the fact that it has a horizontal leadership structure, the decentralized network of bosses, a lot of local gangs with specialized duties that are affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel, what we're witnessing is sort of a moment of transition," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"Since Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón declared the start of the Drug War in 2006, both the U.S. and Mexico’s security forces have aggressively pursued what is referred to as the kingpin strategy: they go after the 'head’ with the intent of weakening the ‘body,’" says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"We had the chance to bring some people back into the workforce who had really been hurt under the recession. And I’m worried that’s going to be jeopardized before those people have a chance to get a full-time job," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

"The question we should all ask is whether President Donald Trump’s threat of imposing scaled tariffs on Mexico will go the way he plans—including shutting down the border," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"The fallout of such tariffs could be catastrophic to Mexico's economy, thereby worsening the migration north," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"This is really going to hurt American businesses who use Mexico to reduce their costs and stay competitive," Mary Lovely, professor of economics, told Bloomberg after President Trump announced that all products from Mexico will be hit with 25 percent tariffs.

Drew Kinney '14 M.A./'18 Ph.D. (PSc) says head of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó's "courting of the military to intervene in the political process and overthrow a state’s executive leadership is a textbook case of civilian coup advocacy."

“He is deeply dug in on this,” said Grant Reeher, professor of political science, about President Trump's immigration policy. “There are things that candidates and office-holders are particularly known for and they stake their identities on. He is clearly one of them, on this issue.”

Jean Mercier ’82 Ph.D. (PA), adjunct professor of political science at the l’Université Laval, has co-authored a book which explores the governance patterns of three cities in the Americas: Seattle, Montreal, and Curritiba, Brazil. Utilizing theories such as path dependency, institutional culture, and transaction costs, the authors explore how each of these cities responds differently to common challenges in sustainable urban transport.

Gladys McCormick, the Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations at the Maxwell School, was published in The Hill. She writes about the interpolation by the Trump administration of southern border refugees as Mexican, whereas these immigrants are also fleeing Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador as well.