Security and development policy
Countering threats to security and stability in a failing state: lessons from Colombia
Considering Colombia's attempts to provide a more stable security environment
Authors:
P. Deshazo; J.M Forman; P. Mclean
Publisher:
Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, 2009
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
- 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.
