In this episode of Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Jorge Castañeda discuss the future of Mexico and Mexican-US relations, on Friday, May 31, 2024.

Former foreign minister of Mexico and renowned public intellectual, political scientist, and prolific writer Jorge Castañeda Gutman joins Hoover senior fellow H.R. McMaster to share his insights on current Mexican security concerns and the future of Mexico and Mexican-US relations. Reflecting on Mexico’s 2024 presidential election, Castañeda discusses the significance of the election as a milestone in Mexico’s history, including the implications on Mexico’s economy, efforts to address climate change, and how Mexico will navigate geopolitical tensions between the world’s major powers.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jorge Castañeda Gutman was foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003. He is a renowned public intellectual, political scientist, and prolific writer, with an interest in Mexican and Latin American politics, comparative politics, and US-Mexican and US–Latin American relations. He is the global distinguished professor of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University, where he has taught since 1997, and previously taught at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, Princeton University, and the University of California–Berkeley. Dr. Castañeda is the author of more than more than 15 books, most recently America through Foreign Eyes (Oxford University Press, 2020). He is a regular columnist for Revista Nexos, the Spanish daily El País, and the New York Times. Dr. Castañeda received BAs from Princeton University and the Université Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), an M.A from the École Pratique de Hautes Études, and a PhD in economic history from the Université Paris 1.

H.R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He was the 25th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984, McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018.