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The
Center for Hemispheric Studies Alexis de Tocqueville
is a private non-affiliated organization dedicated to the
production of strategic analysis and action proposals with
the intention of promoting a better integration of the Hemisphere
and of optimizing the global projection of the region.
With
headquarters in Buenos Aires, the Center has been created
as a laboratory of ideas dedicated, for the most part, to
analyzing and proposing improvements in policy and decision-making
processes with reference to the challenges that the region
faces today.
The
activities of the Center for Hemispheric Studies Alexis
de Tocqueville are centered around a mission: to promote
the generation of ideas that aim to create a set of strategic
guidelines for our countries; but these con only grow in
an environment of deep political and philosophical consensus.
Common objectives have to be constructed and projected as
proactive policies and not merely as responses to outside
pressure.
This
consensus must take into consideration some key issues such
as the consolidation of the democratic system, the common
search for a hemispheric security framework, the betterment
of economic relationships, the management and containment
of social conflict, and the upholding of human rights.
To
deal with the complexity of these tasks, an interdisciplinary
body of scholars and analysts was chosen as the core of
the Center for Hemispheric Studies.The organization has
counted from its very beginning with the active participation
of thinkers and policymakers from countries around the Hemisphere
and actively promotes a multinational approach.
The
programs are dedicated to the spreading and exchange of
ideas through the media, the organization of open forums,
seminars in educational institutions, always promoting the
involvement of the students whether it be in research projects
or conferences.
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OUR
PHILOSOPHY
Throughout recent years, both intra-hemispheric relations
and the relationship of our countries with the United States
and Europe have been centered on commercial and financial
matters, but we have not yet faced the difficult task of
creating a political consensus that could be transformed
into active policies.
If
this trend were to continue we would find ourselves in a
reality where commercial exchanges are everything. The evolution
of this tendency without the development of political-philosophical
foundations and matching geopolitical underpinnings will
result in relationships of limited value and substance.
The
Center for Hemispheric Studies Alexis de Tocqueville
is based on the premise that hemispheric integration is
impossible to build without a pre-existing base of political
consensus that has to take into consideration the Latin
American countries’ interests and perspectives. We
understand that this political consensus implies approaching
a set of topics, starting at the political level, moving
to the realm of strategy, and from there to the day- to-
day policies, and not the other way around.
Among
the main subjects of research and action proposals common
to the Hemisphere, we have to underline the generalized
concern around the perception of the democracies’ growing
incapacity to solve the daily problems of the people. The
democratic systems in most Latin American countries are
not delivering. Due to this there is a growing necessity
for reformulation of these systems, aiming at certain key
issues such as "accountability", the struggle
against corruption, maximizing efficiency, strengthening
civil society, and redefining the concept of citizenship.
Although
the Center does fully agree with the benefits of an open,
integrated and productive economy, our objective will be
mostly centered on the search of specific solutions that
take into account the profound diversity of the hemisphere,
generating proposals that address the needs of each society
and economy, avoiding the application of "recipes"
that are supposedly valid for all regions.
On
the other hand, the growing impoverishment of the Latin
American countries is resulting in high levels of social
conflict. Poverty is becoming a fertile ground for the expansion
of crime and violence, which are already out of control.
This subject can be approached from two different perspectives.
The first approach focuses on the roots: the need for improvements
in educational levels, generation of employment and the
reduction of levels of poverty. The other addresses the
immediate necessity of dealing with the perception of insecurity,
and should be centered around a drastic reform of police
forces and plans for community participation.
Another
issue that has remained largely unattended is the consideration
of hemispheric security, which has been traditionally thought
of in derogatory terms, due in part to the fact that the
countries of the Hemisphere have not yet reached a consensual
definition of the term, and normally disagree with whatever
concepts of security the United States presents. The Center
recognizes that the possibilities of this taking place in
the short run are slim, unless a previous introspection
at the national level allows the definition of their perceived
security needs, based on their own interests. Then, levels
of consensus must be searched for in the sub-regional and
regional levels to redefine the role of the military and
the security forces in the face of these new challenges.
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RESEARCH
AREAS
Reformulation of democracy in Argentina and the region:
representation, accountability, struggle against corruption,
clientelism.
Paper:
"Liberties in Latin America: rights with no guarantees"
Urban safety: poverty and crime, police and judicial
reform.
Report:
"Poverty, violence and development"
Paper:
"In Latin America a reform of the urban security
structure is urgent"
Organized crime: narco-traffic, lawless areas, new
threats, money laundering.
Research
paper: "Colombia or the struggle for the transnational
power"
FTAA-Mercosur: political-strategic concerns, commercial
matters.
Position
Papers: "Summit of the Americas"; Quebec,
Canada, 2001.
Towards a hemispheric security system: the search
for a regional consensus.
Paper:
"Five alternative approaches to Hemispheric Security"
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