About
What is the Security Research Hub?
The Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy’s (JGI) Security Research Hub (SRH) is a virtual research platform that harnesses publicly available information to support collaboration and shared understanding about Latin American and Caribbean security issues. Created in partnership with U.S. Southern Command, the SRH focuses on a wide range of security-related topics such as transnational organized crime, migration, illegal fishing, regional health concerns, and strategic competition.
The SRH leverages academic, NGO, and government partnerships to create a research environment that produces collaborative research products aimed at providing insights into security challenges in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. This approach uses publicly available data and applies analytic tools that aggregate research, leading to new, original findings which are shared openly in an effort to enhance the security and well-being of the region.
“Ultimately, the scope of security issues will largely be driven by the hub’s user community. Our intent is to leverage the hub’s user community to bring attention to the most pervasive and prevailing security challenges facing our hemisphere.”
– Brian Fonseca, Director Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy
Additionally, it will integrate virtual learning and build a collaborative community from across academia, government, civil society organizations, and private industry throughout the hemisphere. At its core, the SRH has three primary objectives it aims to fulfill:
In fulfilling these goals, FIU and its partners can exchange information and create a workforce to promote a secure Latin American and Caribbean region.
What Have Others Said About The SRH?
“This research hub leverages technology, open-source data, and the intellectual capital of academia, NGOs and individual citizens. By making data accessible, we are ‘open-sourcing’ the problem set, which will promote new insights and solutions. This partnership with FIU is a significant step toward democratizing data and harnessing innovation.”
– Ambassador Jean Manes, Civilian Deputy to the Commander and Foreign Policy Advisor, U.S. Southern Command
“It is of utmost importance to build bridges between the production of new knowledge and decision-making processes that can transform our Hemisphere. This project allows that—the construction of safer, better integrated and prosperous societies free of fear and free of want.”
– Luis G. Solis, former President of Costa Rica
Our Partners
The SRH partners with leading government and non-government organizations across the hemisphere to ensure robust and accurate collaboration to address the most critical security issues that affect Latin America and the Caribbean.
CRIES
The Regional Coordinator of Economic and Social Research (CRIES), founded in 1982 in Managua, is a network of research centers, non-governmental organizations, professional associations and foundations, that promote economic and social research in Latin America and the Greater Caribbean. From 2016 it became a regional think tank.
FIU and CRIES work together to share unclassified information, and resources to better understand the implications of Small Arms, Light Weapons (SALW) in Latin America.
Global Fishing Watch
Global Fishing Watch (GFW) is a non-profit organization that is focused on increasing the transparency of human activity at sea in order to support biodiversity and sustainable development in and around the ocean. GFW works with FIU and the SRH on data exchange and education relating to illegal, unregulated, unreported (IUU) fishing.
Andres Bello Foundation
The Andrés Bello Foundation – Latin American Chinese Research Center is a non-profit, independent entity, dedicated to the research and analysis of international relations between the People’s Republic of China and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Andrés Bello Foundation produces articles and papers that critically address the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The organization specializes in academic research, analytical essays and databases developed by Latin American experts dedicated to the study of this relationship. Their content is developed by the research group of the Andrés Bello Foundation, as well as by academics, researchers, and professionals from diverse Latin American institutions.
The Andrés Bello Foundation works with FIU and the SRH on information exchange and research relating to strategic competition in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Earth League International
Earth League International (ELI), the Intelligence Agency for Earth is an innovative non-governmental organization with a mission to protect wildlife, oceans, and forests through intelligence-gathering, research and undercover operations, and cooperation with key governmental agencies. ELI is the “Intel Chip” into transnational wildlife trafficking networks and the convergence of environmental crimes with other serious crimes, addressing the “Who”.
FIU and SRH work together to share unclassified information, and resources to combat environmental and wildlife crime.
IMCS Network
The International Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance (MCS) Network is a transnational voluntary organization consisting of more than 70 member States and regional organizations that provides a platform for fisheries compliance and law enforcement professionals to share information, communicate more effectively, and collaborate on operational MCS challenges and policy development designed to help monitor the increasingly complex harvesting and marketing of fish around the world and ensure high levels of regulatory compliance. FIU’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and SRH are observers within the International MCS Network and work to share information and increase capacity to combat illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing.
CARDH
Created in 2008, and succeeding the GRREUDI Center for Human Rights, the Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research (CARDH) is a non-profit Haitian civil society organization with consultative status with the United Nations (Economic and Social Council). Its mission is to contribute to the respect and promotion of the rights and principles postulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a condition for achieving democracy, the rule of law, sustainable development, good governance, poverty eradication and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
CARDH and FIU are working together to exchange data and information related to human rights and kidnappings in Haiti.