Amid President-elect Donald Trump’s recent pledge to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican products, if Mexico does not curb the flow of fentanyl, this episode dives deep into the complexities of U.S.-Mexico relations and the fight against organized crime. Join host Nelly Hernandez Valdez and policy expert Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown as they explore:

• Fentanyl and the Cartels: How Mexican criminal groups have become key players in the U.S. fentanyl epidemic and their strategies for controlling local economies and territories.

• China's Role: The connection between Chinese criminal groups and Mexico’s illegal economies and its implications for global security.

• Bi-national Cooperation: Why has the Bicentennial Framework between the Biden and Lopez Obrador administrations seen limited progress, and what can we expect under President Claudia Sheinbaum and President-elect Donald Trump as they inherit this complex relationship.

• Weapons Trafficking: The U.S. gun industry’s impact on cartel firepower and whether reforming firearm policies could disrupt organized crime.

Policy Proposals: The effectiveness of proposed measures, such as designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations or employing military force, and what policymakers can do to achieve real results.

Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She is the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and of the Brookings series "The Fentanyl Crisis in North America and the Global Reach of Synthetic Opioids. She is also the co-director of the Africa Security Initiative. Previously, she was the co-director of the Brookings projects “The Opioid Crisis in America: Domestic and International Dimension," “Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives Beyond UNGASS 2016,” and “Reconstituting Local Orders.” Dr. Felbab-Brown is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, terrorism, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies. Her fieldwork and research have covered, among others, Afghanistan, South Asia, Burma, Indonesia, the Andean region, Mexico, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, and various parts of Africa. She was a senior advisor to the congressionally-mandated Afghanistan Peace Process Study Group. A frequent commentator in international and U.S. media, Dr. Felbab-Brown regularly provides testimonies to the U.S. Congress. She also hosts the podcast show “The Killing Drugs: Synthetic Opioids Around the World. ”