Lounsbery Project

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North American Homeland Security and Defense: Enhancing U.S Joint Planning and Cooperation with Canada and Mexico in the War against Terrorism

In January 2005, IFPA received a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation in Washington, D.C., to develop options to increase homeland defense/security cooperation between the United States and Canada and between the United States and Mexico. A central element is safeguarding U.S. borders from weapons of mass destruction.

The completed project addressed several interrelated topics:

Canadian and Mexican perspectives on enhanced cooperation with the United States
Legal/treaty and sovereignty issues in response to a terrorist act
U.S.-Canadian bilateral national security structures and their likely evolution
Institution building and potential avenues for the more formal integration of Mexico into homeland security and defense
Options for cooperative research and development
Border security to enhance the secure flow of people and goods
Maritime security to improve coordination against maritime threats
Augmentation of intelligence and information sharing and the establishment of the requisite protocols
Bilateral consequence management and crisis contingency planning

IFPA built on its ongoing research in the area of homeland security/defense, allied defense collaboration, and consequence management policy and planning. In addition, IFPA organized two bilateral workshops (one U.S.-Canadian, one U.S.-Mexican).

The first workshop, The Canada- U.S. Partnership: Enhancing Our Common Security, cosponsored by the Canadian Embassy in the United States, was held on March 14, 2005, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. The second workshop, The Mexican-U.S. Partnership: Enhancing Our Common Security, took place on December 2, 2005, also at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.