Rafael Fernández de Castro

Rafael Fernández de Castro is a professor, Aaron Feldman Family Chancellor's Endowed Chair in U.S.-Mexican Studies in Memory of David Feldman, and director of the school's Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX). A former foreign policy adviser to President Felipe Calderón, he is an expert on bilateral relations between Mexico and the U.S.

Fernández de Castro is founder and former chair of the Department of International Studies at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City. He has published numerous academic articles and written several books, including “Contemporary U.S.- Latin American Relations: Cooperation or Conflict in the 21st Century?” and “The United States and Mexico: Between Partnership and Conflict” with Jorge Domínguez.

He also worked as the Project Director of the UNDP’s Human Development Report for Latin America 2013-14, “Citizen Security With a Human Face: Evidence and Proposals for Latin America.” He is the founder and editor of Foreign Affairs Latin America and contributes to the daily newspaper El Financiero and a regular contributor to Televisa.

His current research includes a book on leadership and decision-making in Mexican foreign policy and he serves as a principal investigator along with Professor Jenny Pearce from the London School of Economics for the project “Co-constructing Security Provision in Mexico: A Methodology and Action Plan from Communities to the State”. The project, funded by Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology and the UK’s the Economic and Social Research Council, works with community, civil society and state actors to build shared understandings of the differential impacts of violence, insecurity and security provision to develop local security agendas constructed from the ground up in four cities severely affected by violence: Tijuana, Apatzingán, Acapulco and Guadalupe.

Education and CV

Ph.D., Political Science, Georgetown University, 1995
M.P., Public Policy, University of Texas at Austin, 1986
B.A., Social Sciences, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, 1981
CV

GPS Spotlight

Expert on U.S.-Mexico Relations Rafael Fernández de Castro Named to New Endowed Chair
March 31, 2022 | Aaron Feldman Family Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in U.S.-Mexican Studies in Memory of David Feldman established at UC San Diego as part of Chancellor’s Endowed Chair Challenge

Mexico Violence Resource Project launch
Oct. 14, 2020 | UC San Diego Mexico Violence Resource Project Goes Beyond Cartels to Study Drug War

‘You can always go around the obstacles’
Sept. 25, 2020 | Despite the ongoing stay-at-home order amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Rafael Fernández de Castro is broadening the reach of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies

Mexico Opium Network Launched to Combat Global Opioid Epidemic
June 29, 2020 | UC San Diego’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies among the key partner institutions for the first-of–its kind, international effort

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