Small Wars Journal-El Centro Update and Call for Papers
Dear El Centro Fellows,
Hopefully everyone had a good summer. Since our last update, we have published a second joint publication with the Vortex Foundation. This Spanish language book Macro-criminalidad: Complejidad y resiliencia de las redes criminales was edited by El Centro Fellows Eduardo Salcedo-Albarán and Luis Jorge Garay Salamanca (primary contributors) with contributions by Francisco Gómez Flórez, José Ugaz Sánchez-Moreno, John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker. Details on the book are available at the Vortex web site and it is available at Amazon.
In addition, the Fifth SWJ-El Centro Anthology: Narcoterrorism and Impunity in the Americas is in production and will be released shortly. This volume continues of exploration of insecurity, crime, and violence in Mexico and Latin America. As you know, each anthology collects articles and essays published at SWJ-El Centro during 2015 and adds additional content for context. We will advise everyone when it is released.
Finally we would like to ask everyone to consider contributing to SWJ-El Centro as we seek to develop content for the next anthology. We are seeking to develop the content for the next anthology around the theme "The Rise of the Narcostate (Mafia States)." Content that explores this theme as well as state transition and corruption are encouraged.
In addition to contributions from Fellows, we ask all Fellows to consider soliciting contributions from colleagues (and doctoral students) that are researching this area. As always, Latin America is our focus, but parallel case studies involving transnational crime and organized criminal threats (gangs, mafias, cartels, criminal warlords) that challenge the state elsewhere are also welcome.
Dr. John P. Sullivan and Dr, Robert J, Bunker
Senior Fellows,
Small Wars Journal-El Centro
The following SWJ-El Centro works have been released to date:
Mexico's Criminal Insurgency: A Small Wars Journal-El Centro Anthology (2012)
Mexican Cartel Essays and Notes: Strategic, Operational, and Tactical (2013)
Crime Wars and Narco Terrorism in the Americas: A Small Wars Journal-El Centro Anthology (2014)
Criminal Insurgents in Mexico and Latin America: A Small Wars Journal-El Centro Anthology (2015)
Drug Trafficking, Corruption and States: How Iliicit Networks Shaped Institutions in Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico (A Small Wars Journal El Centro and Vortex Foundation Book) (2015)
Macro-criminalidad: Complejidad y resiliencia de las redes criminales (A Vortex Foundation and Small Wars Journal El Centro Book) (2016)
About the Author(s)
Dr. John P. Sullivan was a career police officer. He is an honorably retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, specializing in emergency operations, transit policing, counterterrorism, and intelligence. He is currently an Instructor in the Safe Communities Institute (SCI) at the Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California. Sullivan received a lifetime achievement award from the National Fusion Center Association in November 2018 for his contributions to the national network of intelligence fusion centers. He completed the CREATE Executive Program in Counter-Terrorism at the University of Southern California and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the College of William and Mary, a Master of Arts in Urban Affairs and Policy Analysis from the New School for Social Research, and a PhD from the Open University of Catalonia (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). His doctoral thesis was “Mexico’s Drug War: Cartels, Gangs, Sovereignty and the Network State.” He can be reached at jpsullivan@smallwarsjournal.com.
Dr. Robert J. Bunker is Director of Research and Analysis, C/O Futures, LLC, and an Instructor at the Safe Communities Institute (SCI) at the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy. He holds university degrees in political science, government, social science, anthropology-geography, behavioral science, and history and has undertaken hundreds of hours of counterterrorism training. Past professional associations include Minerva Chair at the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College and Futurist in Residence, Training and Development Division, Behavioral Science Unit, Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy, Quantico. Dr. Bunker has well over 500 publications—including about 40 books as co-author, editor, and co-editor—and can be reached at docbunker@smallwarsjournal.com.