Mexico, Pakistan face ‘rapid and sudden’ collapse: Pentagon

A new Pentagon report that tries to predict the type of challenges the U.S. military will face over the next 25 years warns that Mexico and Pakistan could face a “rapid and sudden” collapse.

“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels,” the assessment of worldwide security threats says. “How that international conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state.”


“Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone,” it adds. However, a similar scenario in Pakistan would be catastrophic.

“Some forms of collapse in Pakistan would carry with it the likelihood of a sustained violent and bloody civil and sectarian war, an even bigger haven for violent extremists, and the question of what would happen to its nuclear weapons,” the report says. “That