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Tony Payan, Working at Cross Purposes: How National Security Strategies Undermine North American Regional Security, International Studies Review, Volume 16, Issue 4, December 2014, Pages 700–701, https://doi.org/10.1111/misr.12161
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The authors of North American Regional Security: A Trilateral Framework? analyze the current state of security in North America, bringing together two major theoretical frameworks in their innovative study: Buzan and Weaver's regional security complex theory (RSCT), and a constructivist approach based on what the authors term the “three I's—Institutions, Identity and Interests” (p. 10). These concepts serve to determine the unit of analysis (North America, defined as Canada, the United States, and Mexico) and to answer the study's central question, is there a trilateral security framework in North America?
To answer this question, the authors revisit the historical “construction of security” in the three North American countries. They conclude that each country arrived at an internal or domestic logic in regard to its national security that is, and has been, difficult to reconcile with those of their two neighbors. The American culture of security is global in scope; Canada primarily takes a defensive posture; and Mexico's culture of security is acutely aware of the inherent institutional weaknesses of the state. The authors correctly conclude that these diverging approaches to national security do not appear to provide the necessary basis for a North American security framework. Without committing to this conclusion initially, the authors put their hypothesis to the test by attempting to find a baseline upon which to build a North American security framework. To do so, they examine specific situations involving the three North American countries, including natural disaster cooperation during the Katrina and Rita hurricanes, tactical cooperation such as the binational Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETs) and Border Enforcement Security Taskforces (BESTs), important security forums such as the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CDMA), and even institutions such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Although the authors appear to suggest these are “successful” cases that point to the existence of a North American security framework, the overall study reveals something much more disappointing: Not only are these good examples of the absence of a North American security framework, they also reflect how stovepipe security strategies exacerbated by increasing levels of distrust undermine overall regional security in the continent.
