Apart from courses on NAFTA and North American integration, this essay could bring “North American” content and enhance theoretical discussions in courses in the following subjects:

Political Science

• International Political Economy: Units on trade liberalization and regional economic integration, globalization; particularly useful for discussing how trade and transportation are still closely linked, and how regional economic systems are built via infrastructure and via the political power of interest groups, as well as broader structural contextual variables such as geography or the broader patterns in the national and global economies. Also could be brought into a unit on the Political Economy of Development, looking at Mexico’s choice to join NAFTA, how it has benefited, and its future strategies to adapt to a competitive (i.e., China) global economy.

• Globalization/Global Issues: Transportation and infrastructure are issues that are not looked at closely enough in this area, which tends to focus on how the Internet has made political organizing across borders via “global civil society” possible, challenging more nation-state-bound forms of interest articulation. Eaton’s piece underscores the question of whether free trade leads naturally to a “leveling up,” or whether public sector resources, or public-private partnerships such as trade corridors, are needed to make that happen. It also discusses the issue of regulatory harmonization, which is a politically loaded issue in national contexts where sovereignty and policy autonomy are viewed as sacred values that national governments must protect. This can also play in to a unit on “Whither the Nation-State?” as Eaton’s argument for greater investment in infrastructure belies the idea that the state is withering away, or that there is no efficiency gains to be made from public investment.

• Specialized Courses on Borders and Transborder Studies: Eaton’s piece reinforces the idea that the North American region is integrated in some ways, but in others it is fragmented by geographic borders, and by divisions based upon the great disparity of income levels between the U.S. and Canada, on the one hand, and Mexico, on the other. And yet Eaton assumes that with the proper policies and with the right investments, Mexico can leverage its geographic position to improve its citizens’ economic level, focusing on creating better, advanced manufacturing jobs. Students can ponder, how can this happen for Mexico? How can Mexico compete with the juggernaut of Chinese low-wage manufacturing? Eaton’s piece also suggests integrating Mexico into North America’s transportation networks, but this runs up against the issue of post 9.11 border security – students may be asked to consider these two possibly incompatible imperatives within NAFTA: keeping the border closed to terrorists (and illegal workers), but open for legal commerce. How might the three NAFTA countries view their border to reconcile these two competing goals? Students could investigate what has been done to date, in the Canada-U.S. Smart Border Accord and the Mexican-U.S. Border Partnership.