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COPYRIGHT 2008 U.S. Navy
Admiral James Stavridis
Commander, U.S. Southern Command
Admiral James Stavridis, a 1976 distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, assumed command of the U.S. Southern Command Oct. 19, 2006. Adm. Stavridis earned a Ph.D. and master of arts in law and diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in International Relations in 1984, where he won the Gullion Prize as outstanding student. He is also a distinguished graduate of both the Naval and National War Colleges.
USSOUTHCOM, located in Miami, Fla., is one of nine unified combatant commands (COCOMs) in the Department of Defense. It is responsible for providing contingency planning, operations and security cooperation for Central and South America, the Caribbean (except U.S. commonwealths, territories, and possessions), Cuba and the Bahamas, and their territorial waters; as well as for the force protection of U.S. military resources at these locations. USSOUTHCOM is also responsible for ensuring the defense of the Panama Canal and canal area.
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In February, Adm. Stavridis addressed a luncheon group at a major defense conference in San Diego, Calif., regarding the unique challenges of USSOUTHCOM. The following has been edited for brevity from the admiral's remarks.
I'll start with a simple premise: Our shared home is the Americas. You'll note what I didn't say: "America's back yard," or our "front porch"--that's flat out the wrong way to address a hemisphere of tremendous diversity, a land formed by sovereign countries sharing so many common interests and so interdependent in so many ways. It is a house under whose roof live nearly a billion people in relative tranquility.
These common interests are born of the strongest bonds imaginable. The nations of the Americas are tied together by geographic, cultural, economic, political and historical linkages. But despite the power of these linkages, many say the U.S. has neglected Latin America, that we have not paid it the attention, the respect, that it deserves, that we continue to neglect it today ... and consequently we are drifting apart (as proposed by Michael Reid in his recent book: Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul).
There's some evidence to support this. Witness the anti-U.S. rhetoric from several capitals in South America, and several respected studies and polls indicate that there is a decline in positive perceptions of the United States. But before we pass judgment on the state of affairs between the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean ... and what the future holds ... let's take a moment to explore the linkages, challenges, and ... most important ... the opportunities that we share to fulfill the promise of the region.
Exploring the Linkages
At U.S. Southern Command, we are responsible for U.S. national security interests through about one half of this hemisphere--32 countries, 13 territories and 450 million people--across about one-sixth of the Earth's surface. Much of that population has strong cultural ties to the United States.
Within the U.S., approximately 15 percent of our population--more than 40 million citizens--is of Hispanic origin. The U.S. is the second most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world. More Hispanics live in the U.S. today than Canadians in Canada; and,...
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