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February 23, 2023

Peaceful Borders and Illicit Transnational Flows

The Case of the Americas

Event Series: Spotlight on the Americas

Cars line up at the US-Mexico border in 6 lanes

In their book The Unintended Consequences of Peace: Peaceful Borders and Illicit Transnational Flows (2021), Arie Kacowicz and his co-authors argue that international peace creates an environment that facilitates the illicit flow of goods and services due to less strict security measures between the borders of peaceful countries. The authors find that increased illicit flows can destabilize regions as they experience periods of peaceful borders. How can this phenomenon be explained, and what examples can be found in the Americas? In the book Kacowicz and his coauthors explore how the physical traits of a border, the strength of rule of law in a country, and regional socioeconomic conditions contribute to increased illegal flows. 

The Georgetown Americas Institute welcomed Arie Kacowicz, Chaim Weizmann Chair in International Relations and full professor of international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to discuss settled borders and illicit transnational flows in the context of the Americas. The discussion will be moderated by GAI managing director Denisse Yanovich.

Read the event summary here.

Featuring

Arie M. Kacowicz is Aaron and Cecile Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. He also servers as the Chaim Weizmann Chair in International Relations and full professor of international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A faculty member of Hebrew University since 1993 and an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University since 2003, Kacowicz is the author and editor of 10 books, including The Unintended Consequences of Peace: Peaceful Borders and Illicit Transnational Flows (2021, co-authored with Exequiel Lacovksy, Keren Sasson, and Daniel F. Wajner). His areas of interests are theories of international relations, peace studies, globalization and governance, international relations of Latin America, and peace negotiations in the context of the Middle East.

Denisse Yanovich (moderator) is the managing director of the Georgetown Americas Institute. Prior to joining Georgetown she was the deputy to the president at the Inter-American Dialogue, a leading think tank on Latin America. She also worked at the Embassy of Colombia in Washington, managing their Public Diplomacy program, and Fedesarrollo, an economic policy think tank in Colombia, as a research associate. Yanovich holds a B.S. and M.A. in economics from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá and M.A. in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University College, London.