| From the financial crisis of the early eighties to the present, the vulnerability of both the Mexican political system and of the country's more disadvantaged classes and ethnic groups has increased markedly. The transition from a “revolutionary nationalist” to a “neoliberal” market-oriented set of policies, especially after the 1994 Zapatista upheaval, has challenged fundamental notions and practices of Mexico's national security. In the context of critical changes in world politics, particularly after the end of the Cold War, Mexico's experience calls for a more complex understanding of security in general and of national security in particular.; The direction of this thesis is both theoretical and empirical. It first reviews critically the epistemological and ontological underpinnings of the most influential notions of national security, and presents an alternative framework for the case study. Secondly, it traces the history of Mexico's gradual adjustment, from 1982 to the present, in response to the international forces of economic liberalization and regionalization. The centrepiece is a detailed empirical and critical analysis of the Zapatista upheaval that began in Chiapas in 1994. The events have underlined the pressing need to reassess the objective and subjective threats to the security of the nation-state. |
