Research Focus
My research interests include Mexico-U.S. relations, organized crime, immigration, border security, social movements and human trafficking. My newest book is titled Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2017). I was recently the Principal Investigator of a research grant to study organized crime and trafficking in persons in Central America and along Mexico’s eastern migration routes, supported by the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Currently, I am working on a new book project that analyzes new social movements, counterinsurgency tactics and migrant caravans, tentatively titled: The Networks of Mass Migrations, Social Protest and Counterinsurgency: Revising New Social Movement Theories. My two forthcoming books are entitled Las Cinco Vidas de Genaro García Luna (The Five Lives of Genaro García Luna) and La Guerra Improvisada: Los Años de Calderón y sus Consecuencias (The Improvised War: Calderón’s Years and Consequences), which are co-authored with Dr. Tony Payan (El Colegio de México and Editorial Océano; 2020 and 2021). I am also the co-editor of the International Studies Perspectives journal (Oxford University Press).
Current Projects
■ “Drug Smuggling along the US-Mexico Border: Identification and Network Analysis of DTOs and Facilitators of the Drug Trade” (research project with Naoru Koizumi).
■ Participant in the project “Political Parties and the Future of Democracy in Mexico” (organized by Rice University’s Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico).
■ “Explaining the Causes of U.S.-Bound Migration in an Era of Migrant Caravans” (research project with Naoru Koizumi).
Select Publications
