35 West

As a NATO and NORAD member, Canada plays a crucial role in North American continental defense. With the United States now pursuing an expanded continental missile defense posture dubbed the Golden Dome, the Canada-U.S. relationship may be entering a new phase. While the Golden Dome could prove beneficial in advancing Canada’s security strategy, it remains unclear what Canada’s involvement would ac...

With the Indo-Pacific an increasingly volatile region, successive U.S. administrations have sought to shift semiconductor manufacturing back to the Western Hemisphere in general and United States in particular. However, a push to shift the balance of semiconductor production away from Asia also creates opportunities for Mexico, which could be well-positioned to complement the United States’ indust...

Prime Minister Mark Carney led the Liberal Party to a narrow victory in Canada’s pivotal election in April 28. Running a campaign centered on uniting Canadians against U.S. President Trump’s annexation threats and punitive tariffs, Mr. Carney orchestrated a remarkable political comeback for the Liberals, who had been expected to suffer a landslide defeat until a few months earlier. Despite the win...

President Trump’s return to the White House has brought a radical shift in U.S.-Mexico ties, reshaping relations between the two neighbors. Within his first 100 days in office, the U.S. President declared a “national emergency” at the southern border, directed U.S. troops to help seal it, designated several Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and threatened to impose tariffs o...

On March 23, newly minted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called snap elections for April 28, kicking off a 37-day sprint campaign to determine Canada’s future at a critical moment. The race puts incumbent Prime Minister Carney—who assumed leadership of the Liberal Party following Justin Trudeau’s resignation as prime minister—, head-to-head with Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Pa...

On February 9th, Ecuadorians headed to the polls for the first round of presidential elections. While there was little surprise about who the two frontrunners would be, the results turned out to be much tighter than many polls had predicted. Incumbent President Daniel Noboa led with 44.17 percent, just ahead of Luisa González of the Revolución Ciudadana party who garnered 44 percent. The narrow ma...

Climate change and the reduction in sea ice is opening new shipping routes, and making it easier to tap the arctic’s natural resource wealth, especially critical minerals. For Canada, a country where the arctic represents 40 percent of its territory and 75 percent of its coastline, the changing arctic presents new challenges and opportunities. However, Canada’s sovereignty over its vast arctic ter...

As one of his first actions in office, U.S. president Donald Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on foreign assistance pending review for alignment with U.S. foreign policy goals. Subsequent moves by the administration, including the aggressive downsizing and de facto elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development have roiled Washington and resulted in far-reaching implications. Within the...

Gunfire on Haitian airports and an assault on the largest public hospital show that even the country’s critical infrastructure is not immune to gang violence. Massacres in November and December, claiming over 350 lives, prompted many aid organizations to pull up stakes. While the announcement of elections scheduled for mid-November this year sparked a glimmer of hope, past postponements, the deepe...

On Sunday, Ecuadorians will return to the polls for the second time in less than two years to elect a new president. Incumbent Daniel Noboa, who has governed for a mere 18 months since his predecessor Guillermo Lasso disbanded the national assembly and called snap elections in 2023, hopes to win a full term. He faces a crowded field of some 15 other candidates, most notably Luisa González, who nar...

This episode of 35 West originally aired on June 20, 2024. The global energy transition will require a simultaneous mining revolution. However, reaching the levels of production needed to achieve net zero goals is no small feat, while China’s dominance in the midstream of critical minerals supply chains presents risks to both the United States and minerals producers in the Western Hemisphere alike...

In early December, the European Union and Southern Common Market, better known as Mercosur, reached an agreement on a trade deal. This announcement represented the culmination of more than two decades of negotiations between the EU and Mercosur countries, which had progressed off and on since 1999. In this episode, Ryan C. Berg sits down with Lauri Tähtinen, a non-resident senior associate with CS...

The re-election of President Donald Trump has sent reverberations throughout Mexico and Canada, the United States’ closest neighbors and largest trading partners. Of particular concern is Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports into the United States, a threat which will undoubtedly color U.S. relations with its two neighbors and provides an insight into the likely directi...

This episode of 35 West originally aired on May 16, 2024. Following recent announcements that the incoming Trump Administration would consider tariffs on Mexico and Canada unless the two countries act to stop the flow of illegal drugs and irregular migration, many of the topics discussed have only grown in relevance. In 2023, U.S. trade with Mexico grew to nearly $800 billion, leading Mexico to su...

Bound together by tight trade links, cultural ties, as well as mutual defense partnerships like NATO and NORAD, the U.S.-Canada relationship has deep roots. However, the relationship is not without its challenges, especially as Canada appears to drag its feet on U.S. requests that it scale up defense spending to meet rising global security challenges. One area where the United States and Canada co...

On Sunday, October 27, Uruguay held the first round of its presidential elections. While the smoothness of Uruguay’s election may come as a breath of fresh air in a region where orderly political transitions can at times be luxuries, the outcome of the presidential race will have important domestic and foreign policy implications for Uruguay. In this special episode, Ryan C. Berg sits down with Ma...

Since the blatant electoral fraud that took place on July 28, the Maduro regime in Venezuela has sought to repress its way out of mass protests demanding political change. The regime’s heavy-handed crackdown comes at a time when the International Criminal Court has already been investigating Venezuela for alleged crimes against humanity. As the regime seeks to silence dissent and close the civic s...

International diplomatic and economic pressure on Maduro will be decisive in determining whether his ongoing attempts to steal the results of Venezuela's July 28 election will prevail, or if there is potential for change ahead of the official inauguration in January 2025. While the United States has condemned the results in Venezuela, regional heavyweights like Brazil have taken a different approa...

In recent years, feminist foreign policy has emerged as a transformative approach to international relations, focusing on the promotion of gender equality, human rights, and inclusive governance on the global stage. One of the key drivers of feminist foreign policy is its ability to reshape the way states interact with one another. Unlike traditional policies that often prioritize military strengt...

Bound together by geography, commerce, and cultural ties, the Caribbean region is often referred to as the United States “third border.” For this reason, the security challenges that impact the Caribbean should also be front-of-mind for the United States, especially as Caribbean countries face rising levels of violence and instability, fueled by the drug trade. Growing criminal violence, endemic c...

China’s economic strategy has evolved significantly over the past decade. Where once the PRC served as “the world’s factory,” today Chinese companies are increasingly looking to internationalize their operations. Latin America has been emblematic of these changes, in particular Chinese investment flows into regional electric vehicle manufacturing have raised eyebrows among economic security analys...

Throughout the Western Hemisphere ports play a critical role in fostering economic growth, and serving as gateways through which the region engages a world that is eager for it to play a greater role in global value chains. At the same time, the region’s ports have made headlines for their role in the burgeoning trans-oceanic trade in illicit narcotics, gold, timber, and wildlife, while port citie...

Space has long been colored by divides between the “haves” who possess the economic and technological wherewithal to make it to orbit and beyond, and the “have-nots” who lack these capabilities. This divide in turn has historically played out between the Global North and the Global South, with the latter grouping feeling as if they have been excluded from sharing in the benefits of space explorati...

Firearms trafficking is fueling violence across the hemisphere by providing criminal groups the arms and means necessary to violently expand their businesses, threaten citizens, and even challenge government forces. While the United States is by far the largest single supplier of firearms to Latin America and the Caribbean, a plethora of other sources, from unsecured military and police stockpiles...

Almost every corner of the Western Hemisphere has been touched by the monumental challenge of irregular migration. However, addressing the multifaceted and context-specific manifestations of irregular migration is no small feat. An effective response to the migratory movements we are observing therefore hinges on cooperation with partners in the region at all levels, on-the-ground knowledge, and c...