A full Slate of stories about U.S.-Mexico relations

In advance of President Obama’s visit to Mexico, Slate.com has published a series on U.S. relations with its neighbor to the south. What makes this series so compelling is that each article was reported by experts on Mexico and international relations:

“Our Model Neighbor: Ignore the bad press; Mexico has undergone an economic and political transformation over the last decade,” by Barbara Kotschwar.

Since the early 1990s, Mexico has cut its external debt by more than half, has lowered inflation from triple to double to single digits, has adopted a flexible exchange rate that helps maintain price stability, and has nearly doubled its openness to trade. Mexico has accumulated sufficient foreign reserves and has kept the government fiscal position healthy enough to be able to provide a buffer during bad economic times and to stimulate its economy in the current downturn—at least for a time.

“Calderón’s War of Choice: How Mexico’s war on drug cartels is like the war in Iraq,” by Jorge Castañeda. Posted April 14, 2009.

For starters, the rationale behind Calderón’s decision to take on the cartels shifts constantly—as did the Bush administration’s reasoning for taking on Saddam Hussein—depending on the narrative being spun at any given moment and the speed with which past justifications started to ring hollow.

First, the cancer of the drug trade was eating away at the civic fabric of Mexico’s democracy and its institutions. Then it became a matter of saving our children, because Mexico’s consumption rates were rising (a claim the government has yet to back up with persuasive evidence). While in London for the G20 summit, President Calderón gave the impression that his decision to unleash the military on the cartels was made necessary by the United States lifting the 1994-2004 ban on assault rifle sales.

“Distant Neighbors: The massive misunderstandings that plague the relationship between the United States and Mexico,” by Andres Martinez. Posted April 14, 2009.

Partly because half of what used to be Mexico now lies north of the border, Mexicans underestimate the ability of the United States to bumble. Seeing the United States as a nearly infallible superpower suits Mexico’s cultural fatalism and provides Mexicans with an all-convenient scapegoat for their daily travails. But Mexico’s exaggerated sense of awe about its northern neighbor is as corrosive and distortive to the bilateral relationship as is the utter contempt with which Americans regard Mexico.

“What Turkey Can Teach Us: In search of a more perfect union with Mexico,” by Parag Khanna. Posted April 14, 2009.

Turkey has had a free-trade agreement with the European Union since 1963, and Turkish guest workers on the continent, mostly in Germany, and their descendants today represent 85 percent of the Turkish diaspora (a huge proportion for such a nomadic civilization), sending back billions of dollars in remittances each year. At the same time, the vast majority of direct investment in Turkey also comes from Europe, resulting in an Istanbul business district that increasingly resembles a Western European skyline. Istanbul is a major financial hub for Syrians, Kazakhs, and other emerging markets seeking professional services and access to European markets. The lengthy process of EU accession has led to massive changes in Turkish governance, from abolishing the death penalty (even for PKK head Abdullah Ocalan), to minority and language rights for Kurds, to higher status for women in Turkish universities—and, of course, keeping the military out of politics. A once corrupt and murky border between Bulgaria and Turkey is now a 10-row highway and toll plaza. Nobody would call Turkey a failed state today, and the European Union’s tough-love policy is much of the reason why.

By contrast, Washington barely has a Mexico policy, only a failed immigration policy. The Zapatista insurgency, which was timed to humiliate the government of President Carlos Salinas once NAFTA took effect in 1994, has now been replaced by a narco-insurgency reminiscent of Colombia in the heyday of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known as FARC). The United States has stood by impassively as maquiladora plants on the border shut down due to Chinese competition, leading to rising inequality and thus to an increase in illegal immigration. At the same time, Mexico’s government has allowed its greatest asset, the oil sector—which provides 40 percent of the budget—to atrophy.