The InSight Take: The Shield of the Americas Grows, But Does it Have a Strategy?

Colombia just became the 19th member of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition — better known as Shield of the Americas — days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew to Panama to declare its new motto: "We do bad things to bad people." On this week's InSight Take, Managing Editor Deborah Bonello and co-director Jeremy McDermott unpack what this fast-growing coalition actually commits its members to, five months after its founding and still without an approved operational plan. With lethal strikes on Caribbean and Pacific boats having killed over 200 people — and no evidence the US drug flow has slowed — they ask whether Shield of the Americas can actually disrupt organized crime.