Crandall (political science, Davidson College) examines the evolution of US policy towards Columbia, largely driven by factors relating to the US's "war on drugs," as well as the roots of violence in Colombia. He then focuses on US policy towards the country during two key periods: the Samper administration (1994-1998) and the Pastrana administration (1998-2002). He concludes by assessing current US policy toward Colombia and suggesting directions for future policy. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
U.S. policy toward Colombia : hearing before the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, second session, April 11, 2002.
A provocative analysis of the dynamics of US policy toward Colombia--a policy that since 1990 has been driven overwhelmingly by factors related to the "war on drugs" within the United States.
This report proposes where U.S. policy toward Colombia is misguided, and explains how security assistance aimed at reducing drug production and trafficking is only one piece of a broader effort needed to extend legitimate authority in the country.
"This is one in the Special Series of monographs stemming from the February 2001 conference on Plan Colombia cosponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College and The Dante B. Fascell North-South Center of the University of Miami. In substantive U.S. national security terms, Dr. Manwaring addresses the questions, Why Colombia, Why Now, and What Is To Be Done? He explains the importance of that troubled country to the United States. He points out that the fragile democracy of Colombia is at risk, and that the violent spillover effects of three simultaneous wars pose a threat to the rest of the Western Hemisphere and the interdependent global community. Then Dr. Manwaring makes a case against continued tactical and operational approaches to the Colombian crisis and outlines what must be done. In that connection, he recommends an actionable political-military strategy to attain security, stability, democratic governance, and a sustainable peace. The proposed strategy would not be costly in monetary or military terms. It would, however, require deliberate planning, cooperation, time, and will."--SSI.
In 2000, the U.S. passed a major aid package that was going to help Colombia do it all: cut drug trafficking, defeat leftist guerrillas, support peace, and build democracy. More than 80% of the assistance, however, was military aid, at a time when the Colombian security forces were linked to abusive, drug-trafficking paramilitary forces. Drugs, Thugs, and Diplomats examines the U.S. policymaking process in the design, implementation, and consequences of Plan Colombia, as the aid package came to be known. Winifred Tate explores the rhetoric and practice of foreign policy by the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon, Congress, and the U.S. military Southern Command. Tate's ethnography uncovers how policymakers' utopian visions and emotional entanglements play a profound role in their efforts to orchestrate and impose social transformation abroad. She argues that U.S. officials' zero tolerance for illegal drugs provided the ideological architecture for the subsequent militarization of domestic drug policy abroad. The U.S. also ignored Colombian state complicity with paramilitary brutality, presenting them as evidence of an absent state and the authentic expression of a frustrated middle class. For rural residents of Colombia living under paramilitary dominion, these denials circulated as a form of state terror. Tate's analysis examines how oppositional activists and the policy's targets—civilians and local state officials in southern Colombia—attempted to shape aid design and delivery, revealing the process and effects of human rights policymaking.
