My PhD dissertation was a comparative study of U.S. efforts to encourage security sector reform in Colombia, Mexico, and Honduras--the three countries that have benefitted most significantly from U.S. investments in the security sector in Latin America during the 21st century. My research evaluated the success of U.S. security assistance programs (i.e., Plan Colombia, the Merida Initiative, and the Central American Regional Security Initiative/Central American Strategy) in professionalizing military, police, and judicial forces in the three countries of concern and, thereafter, endeavoured to interpret the anticipated variation on the dependent variable, security sector reform, through qualitative, case-study methodology. My research was supported by the UCL Graduate Research Scholarship and the UCL Overseas Research Scholarship.
Dr Paul J. Angelo gained his PhD at UCL Institute of the Americas in 2019, and became a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). As of June 2022, Dr Angelo is Director of the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. Read a small reflection about his time at the Institute here.
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