Home



José Luis Valdés Ugalde, Ph.D.

Professor Valdés-Ugalde was director of the CISAN UNAM from 2001 to 2009. He is currently a tenured full-time researcher, category “B” and has PRIDE D. He occupied the Óscar Uribe Villegas Chair at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), Xochimilco campus, from August 2001 to September 2012, and teaches international relations and political science at the UNAM School of Political and Social Sciences. He is an internationalist and an expert in political science.

He did his master’s in political sociology and his doctorate in international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His specialties are sociological theory, theory of international relations, political theory, U.S. history and foreign policy, as well as North American studies.

His current research projects are “The United States and Democracy in Latin America. Political, Economic, and Social Transition: Governance and Security” and “From ‘Americanism’ as a Hegemonic Ideology to Intelligent Power as an (Inevitable) Strategy for the New Century. Globalization, Decline and Recovery in the U.S.: Toward a New Foreign Policy? Regional Repercussions. A Journey Compared.” He has been a visiting researcher and professor in Europe, The United States and Mexico, outstanding among which are his stays at LSE (August 1997-July 1998); at the CIDE’s DEI (August 2009-August 2010); at the Berlin Free University’s Lateinamerika-Institut (July 2010); and at the UAM-Xochimilco (2011-2012), covering topics in U.S. foreign policy for Mexico and Latin America, international governance, globalization and integration in Latin America, inter-American relations, hemispheric security, and Mexico’s national security. He is currently spending two sabbatical years (2013-2015) at the Lateinamerika-Institut, of the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin, Germany to carry out his latest research project.

He is a regular member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and a Level-II member of the National System of Researchers, as well as the Mexican Council for International Affairs (Comexi), the International Studies Association (ISA), the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Metropolis North America (Canada), and the Mexican Association for International Studies (AMEI). The Mexican government appointed him as a member of the Executive Board of the United States-Mexico Commission for Cultural and Educational Exchange (Comexus), a post he occupied from 2007 to 2010. He is a member of the Ministry of the Economy’s Advisory Council for International Trade Negotiations and of the North American Center for Transborder Studies (NACTS) Board of Advisors. He is also a member of the editorial boards of the following publications: Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, Latin American Politics and Policy Journal, Foreign Policy Edición Mexicana, Voices of Mexico, and Norteamérica, Revista Académica.

Professor Valdés-Ugalde has had more than 25 years’ experience in research and international studies as well as North American studies. He has published 10 books as author, co-author, and editor; 30 book chapters, and more than 60 articles in specialized journals like Norteamérica. Revista Académica, Voices of Mexico, Foreign Policy (Mexican edition), Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica, Nexos, Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior and Canada Watch. The following titles are among the most outstanding: Estados Unidos: Intervención y poder mesiánico. La guerra fría en Guatemala, 1954 (The United States: Intervention and Messianic Power. The Cold War in Guatemala, 1954); By Other Means, For Other Ends: Bush’s Re-election Reassessed; Globalidad y Conflicto: EU y la crisis de septiembre (Globality and Conflict: the U.S. and the September Crisis); Foreign Policy and Governance in Mexico. A Conceptual and Operational Dilemma; Is Obama Black?; Mexico, Obama and the Uncertain Future for a Trilateral Agreement on Security; Mexico’s Polity and Economy: Security vs. Progress and Our Failed Integration; US-Latin American Relations: An Alternative Geopolitical Approach?; El gobierno de Barack Obama y la nueva configuración de la Agenda de Seguridad Internacional (The Barack Obama Administration and the New Configuration of the International Security Agenda); La seguridad nacional de México ante la agenda de seguridad internacional post 11 de septiembre (Mexico’s National Security and the Post-9/11 International Security Agenda); Saving the Homeland: Obama’s New Smart Power Security Strategy.

He is the founder of the CISAN’s Norteamèrica. Revista Académica and was its president from 2006 to 2009. He was the director of the magazine Voices of Mexico from August 2001 to August 2009. He served as president of the Executive Committee of Metropolis Norteamérica from June 2008 to August 2009, which was part of the Metropolis International, Canada network. In addition, Mexico’s Senate appointed him coordinator of the NAFTA evaluation (1999-2000). He was assistant counselor of the Risk Agenda for the former Presidential National Security Advisor’s Office (2001). He is an on-going political commentator for the radio program “Focus” on NRM and for CNN, and a contributor to the Mexico City daily newspaper Excélsior.

Main lines of research:

    ● SEGURIDAD Y GOBERNABILIDAD




jlvaldes@unam.mx

56-23-03-00 al 56-23-03-09