Baker Institute expert available to comment on Kerry’s upcoming Mexico visit

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Baker Institute expert available to comment on Kerry’s upcoming Mexico visit
Payan: US-Mexico relationship more focused on the North American economic agenda

HOUSTON – (May 14, 2014) – Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to be in Mexico City May 21-22 for talks on trade, education and security. Under new Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration, the U.S.-Mexico relationship has become more focused on the North American economic agenda, according to Tony Payan, a fellow for Mexico studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and director of the Baker Institute’s Mexico Center.

TONY PAYAN

The Baker Institute is hosting Kerry’s Mexican counterpart, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jose Antonio Meade Kuribrena, for a special discussion today. Payan is available to comment on Kerry’s and Kuribrena’s respective visits.

“The Pena administration in Mexico learned some important lessons on managing the U.S.-Mexico relationship from the previous Calderon administration,” Payan said. “This relationship is considerably less focused on security and more focused on the North American economic agenda.

“Kerry’s visit to Mexico is likely to serve as an in-depth conversation on the finer details of the new relationship, the depth and extent of cooperation, the Mexican economic agenda and Mexico’s insertion on the larger U.S. trade conversations in Europe and the Pacific, in addition to the usual topics related to security, immigration and the border,” Payan said. “Pena has managed to send the message that the agenda cannot be focused exclusively on security issues and the binational dialogue must be expanded to include a broader and more general range of topics. This visit, in other words, is likely to work out some of the finer details of this new relationship.”

In addition to being a Baker Institute fellow, Payan is an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at El Paso and serves on the graduate faculty of the Universidad Autónoma de Juárez in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. His area of study is international relations, with an emphasis on U.S. and Mexican foreign policy and U.S.-Mexico relations. He is the author of “The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration and Homeland Security” and other books.

The Baker Institute has a radio and television studio available for media who want to schedule an interview with Payan. For more information, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

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Follow the Baker Institute Mexico Center via Twitter @BakerMexicoCtr.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Payan biography: http://bakerinstitute.org/experts/tony-payan.

Baker Institute Mexico Center: http://bakerinstitute.org/mexico-center.

Founded in 1993, Rice University’s Baker Institute ranks among the top 15 university-affiliated think tanks in the world. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute’s strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows, Rice University faculty scholars and staff, coupled with its outreach to the Rice student body through fellow-taught classes — including a public policy course — and student leadership and internship programs. Learn more about the institute at www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute’s blog, http://blogs.chron.com/bakerblog.