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SHANNON K. O’NEIL

Vice President at the Council on Foreign Relations, author of “The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter”

Vice President of Studies and Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
Expert on global trade, supply chains, Mexico, Latin America, and democracy
Author of The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter
Dr. O’Neil has lived and worked in Mexico and Argentina
She was a Fulbright scholar and a Justice, Welfare, and Economics fellow at Harvard University
Has taught Latin American politics at Columbia University

Shannon K. O'Neil is the Vice President of Studies and Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is an expert on global trade, supply chains, Mexico, Latin America, and democracy.

Dr. O’Neil is the author of The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter (Yale University Press, 2022), which chronicles the rise of three main global manufacturing and supply chain hubs and what they mean for U.S. economic competitiveness. She also wrote Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead (Oxford University Press, 2013), which analyzes the political, economic, and social transformations Mexico has undergone over the last three decades and why they matter for the United States. She is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, and a frequent guest on national broadcast news and radio programs. Dr. O’Neil has often testified before Congress, and regularly speaks at global academic, business, and policy conferences.

Dr. O’Neil has lived and worked in Mexico and Argentina. She was a Fulbright scholar and a Justice, Welfare, and Economics fellow at Harvard University, and has taught Latin American politics at Columbia University. Before turning to policy, Dr. O'Neil worked in the private sector as an equity analyst at Indosuez Capital and Credit Lyonnais Securities. She holds a BA from Yale University, an MA in international relations from Yale University, and a PhD in government from Harvard University. She is a member of the board of directors of the Tinker Foundation.

Shannon tailors each presentation to the needs of her audience and is not limited to the top-ics listed below. Please ask us about any subject that interests you:

Global trade
Supply chains
Mexico
Latin America
Democracy

The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter

A case for why regionalization, not globalization, has been the biggest economic trend of the past forty years

The conventional wisdom about globalization is wrong. Over the past forty years as companies, money, ideas, and people went abroad, they increasingly looked regionally rather than globally. O’Neil details this transformation and the rise of three major regional hubs in Asia, Europe, and North America. Current technological, demographic, and geopolitical trends look only to deepen these regional ties. O’Neil argues that this has urgent implications for the United States. Regionalization has enhanced economic competitiveness and prosperity in Europe and Asia. It could do the same for the United States, if only it would embrace its neighbors.

Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead

Without a doubt, the drug war is real. But there is far more to Mexico's story than the narcos’ gruesome narrative would suggest.

While thugs grabbed headlines, Mexico experienced an unprecedented and under-publicized political, economic, and social transformation. Two Nations Indivisible argues the United States is making a grave mistake by focusing on the politics of antagonism toward Mexico. Rather, we should wake up to the revolution of prosperity now unfolding there.

The news that isn't being reported is that, during the early 2000s, Mexico became a real de-mocracy, providing its citizens a greater voice and opportunities to succeed on their own side of the border. Armed with higher levels of education, upwardly-mobile men and women worked their way out of poverty, building the largest, most stable middle class in Mexico's history.

This is the Mexico Americans need to get to know. Now more than ever, the two countries are indivisible. It is past time for the United States to forge a new relationship with its south-ern neighbor. Because in no uncertain terms, our future depends on it.