R. Evan Ellis

Expertise: Latin American Studies with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors.

Dr. Evan Ellis is a research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors.

Dr. Ellis has published over 130 works, including the 2009 book China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores, the 2013 book The Strategic Dimension of Chinese Engagement with Latin America, and the 2014 book, China on the Ground in Latin America.

Dr. Ellis has presented his work in a broad range of business and government forums in 25 countries. He has given testimony on Chinese activities in Latin America to the US Congress on multiple occasions, and has discussed his work regarding China and other external actors in the region on a broad range of radio and television fora, including CNN International, CNN En Español, The John Bachelor Show, Voice of America, and Radio Marti.  His work on the subject is cited regularly in the print media in the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Dr. Ellis holds a PhD in political science with a specialization in comparative politics.

October 13, 2022

Toward a Strategy for Responding to the PRC in Latin America

The work argues that the problem is not the “lack of a strategy,” but ensuring that the strategies that we apply are appropriate, adequately resourced and coordinated, and the tools we use are up to the task. In addition to concisely stating the nature of the risks to the US and the region arising from some dimensions of PRC engagement, the recommendations advanced by the work include: (1) holding the line for Western corporations, strategic technologies and liberal institutions, (2) helping our partners to strengthen their institutions to get a better deal from their work with the PRC and other actors; (3) fixing, rightsizing and better coordinating our institutional tools for competing, (4) improving our data supported messaging, and (5) advancing clear new strategic concepts for the military as part of a whole of government response, coordinate with our likeminded allies.

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September 06, 2022

Latin America's Perfect Storm

Originally published by Global Americans.

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August 30, 2022

Nicaragua: Dictatorship and Collaboration with Extra-Hemispheric U.S. Rivals

This work looks at how the Sandinista regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua has further clamped down on dissent and consolidated power since the rigged November 2021 Presidential elections, and how it is increasingly serving as an entry-point for expanded activity in the region by Russia, Iran, and the PRC.

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July 10, 2022

The Evolution of Peru’s Multidimensional Challenges, Part II: Transnational Organized Crime

Peru’s crisis of politics and governability has reinforced economic and fiscal pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic and increased in food and fuel prices due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, to greatly complicate grave challenges from transnational organized crime and terrorism in the country. Those crises have also undermined the resources available to the country to effectively respond through investing in the modernization, adaptation, and strengthening of its security institutions, and other parts of its whole-of-government response.

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April 27, 2022

The Caribbean in the Crossfire: Between Covid-19, Narcotics, China, and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

My newest work on how the combination of Covid-19, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, PRC engagement in the Caribbean, and transnational organized crime dynamics, are gravely stressing and transforming the Caribbean.

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Expert Information

Expertise

Latin American Studies with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors.

Location

Washington D.C.

Experience

Current Experience

research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute

Past Experience

  • Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies
  • Associate Professor, William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies
  • Adjunct Professor, University of Miami
  • Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton

Education

  • PhD, Political Science, Purdue University