Title: Colombia's road to recovery
Description: "In November 2010, the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS) was commissioned to study the extraordinary transformational process by which the government and citizens of Colombia within roughly a decade regained control of a besieged state and recovered democratic stability. It attempts to describe how Colombia was able to restore security and governance to a remarkable degree during the first decade of the 21st century after having been pushed to the brink of failure during the last decade of the 20th century by guerrillas, illegal paramilitaries, and drug trafficking. While these threats still exist, the government has clearly gained the upper hand against these groups and put them on the strategic defensive. Because of this, Colombia enjoys a greater degree of governance than ever before. While some degree of violence may continue for many years to come, Colombia is closer today to achieving a lasting peace than it has ever been in the 200 years of its existence as an independent republic. Whether it finally achieves peace, or how soon it will happen, depends on the actions the state continues to take to consolidate its remarkable gains. Vital to a broader understanding of Colombia's success is an examination of the dynamic interaction between politics, military and police strategy, the development of government institutions, laws and human rights policies, as well as the enemy's ability to adapt. Previous studies have focused on these elements separately rather than addressing their impact holistically. This unique approach should allow the reader to understand the depth and breadth of Colombia's decades-long struggle for comparative analysis relative to current and future security and governance challenges and to encourage them to draw their own conclusions and "lessons learned" applicable to the security challenges unique to their own countries."-- Publisher's website
Subjects: Counterinsurgency, Politics and government, National security
Places: Colombia
Time periods: 1974-, 21st century