Introducing the 2026 Small Wars Journal-El Centro Fellows, Associates, and Intern

Fellows

Jim Crotty

Jim Crotty is the former deputy chief of staff at the US Drug Enforcement Administration. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs, sits on the Advisory Board of United Against Fentanyl, and is a member of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Network of Experts. He holds a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law, MA in Political Science from Boston College, and BA in Political Science from Auburn University, summa cum laude.

Anais Medeiros Passos

Anaís Medeiros Passos is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology andPolitical Science of Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil.  She was a Post- Doctoral Researcher at Institute of International Relations, University of São Paulo and holds a PhD degree in Comparative Political Sociology from Sciences Po Paris. She authored a number of papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Armed Forces and Society, Third World Quarterly, andRevista de Administração Pública. Her main areas of expertise are civil-military relations in Latin America, politics of militarization, armed forces and democracy, political sociology with extensive knowledgment of fieldwork in Brazil and Mexico. She has been an invited scholar at Sciences Po Paris, University of California Riverside, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Eduardo Moncada

Eduardo Moncada is the Claire Tow Associate Professor of Political Science at Barnard College of Columbia University, and he is also the Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. His research examines the origins, dynamics and consequences of crime and violence in Latin America, with a focus on how criminal governance shapes political life. He is the author of Cities, Business, and the Politics of Urban Violence in Latin America (Stanford University Press) and Resisting Extortion: Victims, Criminals, and States in Latin America (Cambridge University Press). He is also co-editor of Inside Countries: Subnational Research in Comparative Politics (Cambridge University Press). In his current research, Moncada is examining how variation in the ways that criminal organizations govern territories shapes how citizens make claims on the state for public goods and services. Moncada’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the Ford Foundation, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, among others.

Daniel Weisz Argomedo

Daniel Weisz Argomedo earned his PhD in Political Science at the University of California Irvine with a focus on International Relations and Comparative Studies. His dissertation focused on the war on drugs and its impact on women’s security in Mexico. He holds an M.A. in Political Science from San Diego State University where he wrote a dissertation on ‘Hacktivism and social movements’ and earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Alberta where he wrote a thesis on the Mexican war on drugs. He wrote “Climate Change, Drug Traffickers and La Sierra Tarahumara” for the special issue on climate change and global security at the Journal of Strategic Security. He is fluent in Spanish and his research interests include cyberwarfare, the war on drugs, women’s security and contemporary Latin American politics and history. He is a  is a Non-Resident Fellow at Orion Policy Institute.

Associates

Nelly A. Hernádez Valdez

Nelly A. Hernández Valdez holds a Master of Arts in Security Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, with a concentration in international security. Her academic and professional work focuses on combating violence perpetrated by non-state actors, with emphasis on international law, human rights, gender, and human security. She has served as a Hemispheric Security and International Law Analyst at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the Organization of American States. She is a McHenry Fellow for Global Public Service at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.

Roberto Uchôa de Oliveira Santos

Roberto Uchôa is a researcher and specialist in organized crime, firearms control, and public security policies in Brazil, with over twenty years of experience spanning law enforcement, policy-making, and academia. A former Federal Police Officer, he played a key role in the regulation of the firearms trade in Brazil and served on the transition team for President Lula, where he analyzed changes in national weapons control policies. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in “Democracy in the 21st Century” at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Sociology from the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro (UENF) and specialized certifications in organized crime, criminal justice, and illicit markets. Uchôa is a board member of the Brazilian Public Security Forum (FBSP) and the author of the book Armas para quem? A busca por armas de fogo. His work has been widely published in academic journals and international media outlets. His research focuses on the intersection of illicit markets, public safety regulation, and the dynamics of transnational criminal organizations in South America.

Intern

Rhett Alden PriceRhett Price is a consultant and researcher with experience in global business, public policy, and international regulatory affairs. His work centers on analyzing cross-border economic dynamics, political risk, and compliance frameworks that shape US–Mexico trade, energy, and infrastructure. As a Garcia-Robles Binational Business Fulbright Scholar, Mr. Price pursued graduate coursework in macroeconomics, civil law, and business studies at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). He later earned a Master of Global Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, where he concentrated on public policy and global business. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Latin American Studies from Texas A&M University.