After years of studying Mexican politics and conducting dozens of interviews with officials, collaborators and critics of Felipe Calderón's administration, academics Tony Payan and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera present one of the most complete and balanced analysis on said six-year term. Based on the premise that Mexican politics is especially vulnerable to the personal styles of politicians and improvisation, it explains how the decision-making on security policy, the involvement of the armed forces, and the difficulty that the government had to correct the course when the strategies did not yield the expected results. The book ends with a perspective analysis of what the consequences of that government represent for Mexico today and for years to come.