The Americas Archive

Recent Iranian saber rattling about closing the Strait of Hormuz is yet another reason for the U.S. to look north to Canada for oil imports. Military confrontation or a perceived threat of it in the strait — the route for almost 17 million barrels of oil daily — would wreak havoc on global oil supplies. The effects for the United States would be particularly severe: 75 percent of oil from Saudi Arabia, which at 12 percent of net U.S. imports of crude oil and petroleum products is our second-largest supplier, passes through this strategic waterway. Occasional threats to global oil […]

This video shows experiments performed with a team of nano quadrotors at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. It shows advances in the capabilities of miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and may prompt questions about how advanced air defense systems could defend against them.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez last month appointed as defense minister a general allegedly linked to a Colombian rebel group, raising concerns that the move might jeopardize the two countries’ recent thaw in relations. In an email interview, Adam Isacson, senior associate for regional security at the Washington Office on Latin America, discussed the Colombia-Venezuela security relationship. WPR: What have security relations between Colombia and Venezuela been like historically? Adam Isacson: The two northern Andean countries have never gone to war. But relations, while cordial, have never been fully trustful. Things took a turn for the worse in the past decade, […]