When his five-year-old son asked Enrique Desmond Arias, PhD, the new Marxe Chair in Western Hemisphere Affairs, about a product whose label was in both English and French, he little realized that he was tapping into his father’s area of expertise. “The United States has long, often positive, sometimes complicated relationships with its Western Hemisphere neighbors,” notes Dr. Arias, who offered this simplified explanation to his son: U.S. companies, operating within the world’s largest developed economy—one that offers a vital network of trading partnerships—want to sell to French-speaking consumers in Canada, the Caribbean, and elsewhere.
Dr. Arias clarifies some misconceptions: “Western Hemisphere affairs is not U.S. foreign policy in the Americas. A lot of things happen in the countries in this hemisphere that have nothing to do with the U.S.,” he explains. “But all that happens in the Western Hemisphere is extremely relevant to the U.S.”
One such issue involves security and politics in Latin America and the Caribbean, the focus of Arias’s current research. “This region faces immense challenges with crime and security and is among the world’s most violent,” he says. Deeply engaged in international research and policy conversations, Arias is currently working on a book on crime in South American cities with colleagues at the University of Chile and has begun a project on illicit organizations and governance in Colombia and Afghanistan.
Marxe’s new Master of International Affairs (MIA) program was one reason Arias sought the chairmanship. But perhaps even more important is his wish to see professional foreign service career opportunities democratized. “There have been relatively few opportunities for people who do not come from economically privileged backgrounds to pursue careers in foreign service,” he says. “I like that the Marxe School is changing that.”
– Diane Harrigan