Elliot Brockmer, the author of the posts, “Ideas, not money, will make Central America Safer” and “US-LatAm Relations” is an educated individual with opinions on complex issues like safety issues in Latin America and United States-Latin American relations.
In one post I analyzed, Eliot was commenting on the necessity of more innovation when it comes to providing security in Latin American countries as opposed to simply providing funds which most times don’t remedy the issues.
“Lead with good ideas, and the money will follow. Fund all (or most) ideas. Scrap the bad ones, and invest more in the good ones. Revise, tweak, and remain as nimble and creative as the enemy, which is very much both of those things.”
His philosophies are extremely simple in theory, but the same can’t obviously be said for their practice. He doesn’t come off as an academic, though he has contributed to The International Relations and Security Network and World Politics Review. His use of parenthesis shows his understanding of the practicality of his theories. Even his sentence structures reflect on his theories. They’re simple, short and clear, meanwhile retaining his insightfulness, similar to his theories.
His knowledge manifests his post to the last sentence which says:
“The simple promise of more money creates the illusion, and the expectation, that the problem will be solved.”
Though he seems to be preaching, he remains modest, unpretentious and remains far from possessing any self-righteousness. He distinguishes himself from other critics who may simply and solely bash on US foreign policy or Latin American economic policies.
In all his posts, Eliot creates links through words to English sources like Google News and many other Spanish media outlets to provide the sources for his claims.
Eliot begins a previous post on United States-Latin American relations with:
“My apologies in advance: the last thing the world needs is another blog post on US-Latin American relations. With that out of the way, there really are some interesting developments going on that warrant mention.”
Once I read this, I again sensed the humility of Eliot Brockner as a writer. He’s clearly done is research, shown by his common use of linking to other sources, but he ends with questions. He leaves it up to the reader to come up with their own conclusion to the topic of “Latin America’s decade” and the recent inactivity of the United States in Latin America. More specifically, which role does the United States play and which one should it play? His voice isn’t made obvious through figures of speech or visual clues but the overall structure of his blog posts make his posts captivating and intriguing. Like I mentioned before, he concludes with various questions, one of them:
“Economic and cultural ties between the two regions are generally very strong, with the possibility the latter grows stronger as the Latino population grows in the US, and these are things that will likely not change in the immediate future. But what will US policy towards the region be (if there are changes), and how will it differ from the status quo?”
It takes a well-read, professional individual to provide input on these topics without giving off a self-righteous vibe. Eliot is able to do this gracefully without any problem.
Posts: Ideas, not money, will make Central America Safer
US-LatAm Relations
By: Eliot Brockner
Blog: latamthought.org
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