Rocio Rivera

Residency: September – December 2015

Research Project: The Role of State Capacity in Mitigating Organized Crime in Mexico

Research Interests: organized crime, regional security, international relations theory and civil-military relations

Biography

Rocío Rivera Barradas is a Ph.D. candidate in international studies at the University of Miami, where she also earned a master’s in international relations. She earned a B.A. in political science and international relations from Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas.

Rivera Barradas’s research project examines the role of state capacity—in military and bureaucratic terms—and the configuration of the illegal drug market in influencing levels of violence in Mexico. Though several studies have emphasized the unintended consequence that the deployment of military forces has had in increasing levels of violence, there are some cities in which the presence of the army, on the contrary, has reduced violence. Her research examines which factors contribute to a successful mitigation of organized crime-related violence.