Democratic Governance as a Strategic Concept for Latin America

Chinese and Russian advances across the region, Dr. Ellis draws the conclusion: The U.S. needs a strategic concept for what it is trying to achieve in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Ellis will argue that advancing “democratic governance” is a useful strategic concept for U.S. national security and other policymakers and without clarity regarding what the U.S. is seeking to achieve, the regional security environment devolves into responses to the invariable crises and advances of foreign actors.
About the Speaker: Dr. Evan Ellis is a research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College (USAWC) Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors, as well as transnational organized crime and populism in the region. Dr. Ellis has published more than 170 works, including: China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009); The Strategic Dimension of Chinese Engagement with Latin America (William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, 2013); and, China on the Ground in Latin America (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014). Dr. Ellis has presented his work in a broad range of business and government forums in 26 countries throughout four continents, and has given testimony on Chinese activities in Latin America to the U.S. Congress. Dr. Ellis has discussed his work regarding China and other external actors in Latin America on a broad range of radio and television programs; he is cited regularly in print media in both the United States and Latin America for his work in this area. Dr. Ellis holds a Ph.D. in political science with a specialization in comparative politics.