Within the North American community the hybrid threat of crime, terrorism and insurgency is an understudied area in terms of policy, strategy, and doctrine. In an effort to begin to address this area, and exploring those ideas in the particular context of Mexico, The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) together with the U.S. Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership co-convened a symposium on the subject in Washington D.C. The report on the symposium is a compilation of those proceedings, featuring the presentations that helped inform and generate the discussion that followed. We hope, through this symposium and this publication, that we can begin a substantial conversation on how best to tackle these difficult conceptual issues, ones that pose important national security implications. Much work remains to be done, however, to generate the theory and scholarship that could and should inform practice in this area.

"December 2011"--T.p.

Foreword / Frank J. Cilluffo and Bert B. Tussing ; Keynote speech. Mexico: drugs, crime and the rule of law / Barry R. McCaffrey -- HSPI issue brief: Mexico and the triple threat / Sharon L. Cardash, Frank J. Cilluffo and Bert B. Tussing ; Panel 1. Strategy and doctrine: tackling the hybrid threat of crime, terrorism and insurgency. Introduction / Frank J. Cilluffo -- Gangs and cartels in coalition and conflict: the insurgency phenomenon in Mexico / Max G. Manwaring -- Drug traffickers, insurgents and safe havens: lessons learned from Plan Colombia / Mark Coomer -- Perspective from the ground: criminal threat or national security concern? / Anthony Placido ; Panel 2. Mexico as a case study. Introduction / Bert B. Tussing -- Not just about Mexico, not just about drugs / Robert Killebrew -- Lesson learned and relearned: translating the global experience to the Mexican challenge / Juan Zarate.