Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Preface -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Summary -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- CHAPTER ONE: Introduction -- Approach -- Finding the Right Comparisons -- Labeling the Perpetrators and the Implications Thereof -- Benefits of This Approach -- Organization of This Report -- CHAPTER TWO: Contemporary Violence and the Broader Context in Mexico -- Two Mexicos -- Conflict and Violence in Mexico -- Explaining the Outbreak of Violence -- The Violent Drug-Trafficking Organizations -- Efforts to Improve the Situation -- Key Features of the Mexican Context -- Security Forces and Organization -- Government and Governance -- Civil Society -- Economy -- CHAPTER THREE: Finding the Right Comparisons: Case Selection -- CHAPTER FOUR: Comparing Mexico with the Challenges Faced and the Outcomes Reached in the Historical Cases -- Challenge A: Violence -- Challenge B: "Anomic" Violence or Indiscriminate Mayhem/Indiscriminate Violence -- Challenge C: Insurgency/Competition for State Control -- Challenge D: Ethnically Motivated Violence -- Challenge E: Lack of Economic Opportunities -- Challenge F: High Level of Weapon Availability -- Challenge G: Competition over a Resource -- Challenge H: Ungoverned Spaces -- Challenge I: State/Institutional Weakness -- Challenge J: Patronage/Corruption -- Efforts Correlated with Improvement in the Historical Cases -- Chicken or Egg? Correlation and Causation in Meeting Challenges -- Confirmation in the Detailed Narratives -- CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusions and Recommendations -- Mexico Is Not Colombia, Nor Is It Any of These Other Cases -- Lessons Highlighted in the Case Narratives -- Confirmed Correlations in the Case Studies -- Recommendations from the Literature and Historical Case Studies -- Ways to Combat the VDTOs -- Leverage the Law of Supply and Demand -- Other Proposed Solutions.

Recommendations for Mexico -- References.