In 2009, the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Mexican Council on Foreign Affairs convened the Binational Task Force on the United States-Mexico Border. The group issued a series of recommendations regarding border management, which were detailed in the report, “Managing the United States-Mexico Border: Cooperative Solutions to Common Challenges.” Now, as border management plays a key role in the debate over immigration reform, the Task Force will reconvene to evaluate progress in managing the U.S.-Mexico border.

As energy policy conversations move forward in 2013, “all of the above” options must be considered in developing new and renewable sources of energy. Our distinguished panel of experts discussed the growing cooperative relationship between U.S. utilities and the Canadian hydroelectric industry, and how they complement each other.

The concept of human rights acquired global significance during the 1970s, spurred by the activities of a growing number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) responding to state repression in Chile, South Africa, the Warsaw Pact states, and elsewhere. Key interlocutors for NGOs like Amnesty International and Helsinki Watch were their home governments, whom they influenced through a combination of public campaigning and private lobbying. Crucially, it seems that during this period human rights NGOs experienced a trajectory from ‘outsider’ to ‘insider’ status. Does this mean that they paid a costly price for their newfound influence, namely abandoning their original ‘apolitical’ appeal and becoming less impartial and independent? Or should we understand this to be their success in transforming the character of international politics?

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano discussed her departments plans to protect America from multiple threats. This event was co-sponsored with the Aspen Institute's Homeland Security Group.