North America and the dilemma of integration. Perspectives on the future of the region.

The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) in collaboration with the most prestigious Mexican universities present a multidisciplinary 5-day event: "North America and the dilemma of integration. Perspectives on the future of the region."

The participating Mexican universities are Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Colegio de México (COLMEX), and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).

With the increasing globalization of our economies, the debate and controversy created by a stronger integration, formal or informal, between the United States, Mexico and Canada becomes increasingly important. The collaboration among these important Mexican universities and The University of Texas at Austin will contribute in important ways to strengthening the debate on the future of the North American region.

For a deep analysis of political, social, cultural and economic factors that are part of this integration, a selected group of researchers and scholars from UT Austin and from the participating Mexican universities, will debate the topics that affect the future of the region together with important personalities and opinion leaders from all three countries.

Through this debate we hope to promote an open dialogue about the potential scope and consequences of greater integration, but most importantly, we hope to help bridge the gap that all too frequently separates academic research and the implementation of policies.

We truly hope that this conference will be a starting point to stimulate collaborative cross-border work that evaluates competing policy proposals and generates concrete and actionable recommendations for the future of our region.