National Solutions to Trans-Border Problems?: The Governance of Security and Risk in a Post-NAFTA North America

Triggered by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico redefined and adapted their public policies to the transnationalization and/or regionalization of all kinds of flows. After more than 15 years of progressively phasing out tariffs and other types of barriers, the governments and societies of the three countries have become more aware of the existence of shared sensitive issues, whose management and eventual solution can not be reached neither by current national-based governance institutions nor by NAFTA. Cross-border issues associated with commerce, such as migration, environment and security (among others), exceed the simple scope and capabilities of national policies and intergovernmental cooperation. This volume addresses the institutional gaps already existing within North-American affairs, focusing mainly on the governance and security aspects. It gathers the interdisciplinary contributions of various specialists working on continental issues within the three countries of North America. Their contributions highlight the transnational dimension of certain issues still managed under national-framed policies, and explore the possibilities and constraints for moving public policy into new cross-border governance strategies. Divided in two parts, the first part assesses what is at stake in cross-border governance issues in North America, and weather the integrative trend in the region will be maintained or stalled in the years to come. The second part explores the growing scope of security problems interconnected with borders, migration, energy and drug trafficking across the region. It highlights how Mexico and Canada are responding or adapting their policy choices to a continental security approach framed by the US after the terrorist attacks of September 11, and to the major concern of the Obama administration on organized crime activities and violence.