Countering threats to security and stability in a failing state: lessons from Colombia

The goal of this report is to derive from the case study of Colombia some practical lessons related to countering challenges to security and stability in a weakened State. The paper gives details of issues such as:

• threatened state stability and democracy
• citizen security: human rights, violence and governance
• US support: provided more than $6.8 billion in assistance since the approval of the emergency supplemental plan
• counternarcotics policy: constituted the overwhelmingly dominant factor in the US’s relationship with Colombia
• Colombia’s security crisis stemmed from a weak state incapable of exercising legitimate authority over extended parts of national territory

The paper offers a number of lessons learned/ conclusions including:

• top civilian and a military leadership in Colombia understood the nature of the country’s crisis and in a manner very different from the past Colombian efforts at dealing with the insurgency and illegal groups
• Colombian planners developed a strategy aimed at countering and then rolling back the power of illegal armed groups by wrestling from them key areas of the country
• Colombia understood that implementing the democratic security policy would be a long and expensive process and accordingly imposed special taxes on Colombia’s elite to pay for increased budgets for the armed force and police
• the Colombian army was rebuilt as an effective countersurgent force, with well trained and equipped combat units staffed by professional soldiers at the core while using draftees, especially a home guard, to control small towns and rural areas.