Download or read book Colombian Army Adaptation to FARC Insurgency written by Thomas A. Marks and published by Strategic Studies Institute. This book was released on 2002 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author points out that Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgents actively are pursuing a strategy to mobilize the disaffected and disposed people of Colombia, and to control the entire national territory. At the same time, he argues that no one in the national political establishment has taken the initiative to conduct an appropriate effort to deny FARC its objective. As a result, the Colombian Army has been left alone to direct the fight, without a coordinated and integrated national campaign plan or other resources that would allow for success. The author concludes that the Army has bought time, and there is still an opportunity for the United States to help Colombia deal with its insurgent threat in new ways.
Download or read book Colombian Army Adaptation to FARC Insurgency written by Thomas Marks and published by . This book was released on 2002-01-31 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insurgency is a political campaign to mobilize the disaffected and the dispossessed into an alternative society. Until it can actually liberate areas openly, this takes the form of covert infrastructure. Always, unless the insurgents are incompetent which does happen with startling regularity their ultimate goal in deploying power is to create and safeguard the alternative to the society that they are creating. Governments, faced with violence directed at the system, initially go after that which they can see, insurgents with weapons, leaving the infrastructure virtually alone to grow and become ever more deadly. The forces of the state thus normally seek to "close with and destroy the enemy, while the insurgents continue the process of successively dominating areas. What makes it so difficult for systems to see their way clear to an accurate appreciation of the situation is that the people in positions of authority are those who often have benefited from the status quo. They are comfortable with the way matters are, understand them, can't figure out why anyone would expect them to be otherwise. And even if they allow for the possibility of disaffection, they are expecting Robin Hood and his Merry Men to break from the forest and storm the castle. They are certainly not expecting a war in the shadows. The bottom line is that society sends its security forces out to do what they get paid to do, arrest folks; if necessary, to crack some skulls. The rhythms of life go on until the brutal reality of war intrudes. In those societies which have successfully dealt with this intrusion, response has involved considerable adaptation in existing institutions. This has especially been the case as concerns the armed forces, with the army, as the major ground domination arm, facing perhaps the greatest task. Roots of the Insurgency. The Colombian army (COLAR) has taken the lead in the national response to the decades-old insurgency of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC. Just as Manila had its Huk Rebellion followed by its insurgency of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP), the second conflict rising from the ashes of the first, so Bogota has seen the survivors of an earlier 1959-65 conflict resurface as communist insurgents who have become the most immediate political problem facing the country. The present insurgent situation, in other words, has been a long time coming. What makes it such a difficult and now intractable problem is that it has become a creature of more fundamental structural contradictions long present in the Colombian polity, in particular a lack of state integration and cohesion. The historic symptom of this has been a profound legacy of violence. Twice as many people are murdered each year in this country of less than 40 million as in the entire United States with its roughly 280 million population! Precisely why Colombia has this profile is a subject of much debate. The answer seems to be an early history that boils down to a squabbling group of settlers in a vast land with politics a zero-sum game. The practical effect was that formal democracy, established in the mid-19th century, remained a truly winner-take-all proposition. Thus those in office had every incentive to do all they could, fair or foul, to hang onto power and to plot to get back into power once they were out. This led to multiple civil wars over the years, including the Thousand Day War, 1899-1902, in which over 100,000 were killed.
Download or read book Colombian Army Adaptation to FARC Insurgency written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Colombian Army Adaption to Farc Insurgency written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author points out that Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgents actively are pursuing a strategy to mobilize the disaffected and disposed people of Colombia, and to control the entire national territory. At the same time, he argues that no one in the national political establishment has taken the initiative to conduct an appropriate effort to deny FARC its objective. As a result, the Colombian Army has been left alone to direct the fight, without a coordinated and integrated national campaign plan or other resources that would allow for success. The author concludes that the Army has bought time, and there is still an opportunity for the United States to help Colombia deal with its insurgent threat in new ways.
Download or read book The Past as Prologue A History of U S Counterinsurgency Policy in Colombia 1958 66 written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Past as Prologue written by Dennis M. Rempe and published by Strategic Studies Institute. This book was released on 2002 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The author outlines the history of U.S. counterinsurgency policy and the recommendations made by U.S. Special Survey Teams in Colombia from 1958-66. An examination of that history and the concomitant recommendations indicates that a review of that record would be in order. This monograph comes at a time when the United States is seriously considering broadening its policy toward Colombia and addressing Colombia's continuing internal war in a global and regional context. Thus, it provides a point of departure from which policymakers in the United States and Colombia can review where we have been, where we are, and where we need to go."--SSI site.
Download or read book The United States and Colombia written by Gabriel Marcella and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sustainability of Colombian military strategic support for democratic security written by Thomas A. Marks and published by Strategic Studies Institute. This book was released on 2005 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time in 40 years, cautious optimism pervades discussions of Bogota's seemingly intractable situation. Drugs, terrorism, and insurgency continue in their explosive mix, but the current government of President Alvaro Uribe has fashioned a counterinsurgency approach that holds the strategic initiative and has a chance of negating a long-standing security threat to the state. Colombia has become synonymous in the popular mind with an intractable war waged against narco-terrorists. Not as understood is the strategic setting, wherein the illegal drug trade is not just linked to terrorism but rather is an integral part of a left-wing insurgency that continues to talk the language of the Cold War. This insurgency is the greatest threat to Bogota and to Washington's interests in the region. Thus it is of particular moment to see an indigenously generated response succeed in turning the tide. What has been particularly remarkable has been a military reform movement engineered by Colombian officers committed to strengthening military professionalism and accountability to civilian authority.
Download or read book Commercial Insurgencies in the Networked Era written by Oscar Palma and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as a commercial insurgency through the network-complex paradigm of insurgency. Countering traditional perspectives of the group, it proposes new and comprehensive explanations for the FARC's presence in Latin America. Existing narratives have portrayed the FARC as a terrorist, narco-terrorist, or criminal organization - a narrative popularized by the government offensive conducted by the Colombian state during the last couple of decades. In contrast, this book goes beyond simplistic perspectives of the FARC and instead studies the group in relation to the network-complex paradigm of insurgency. It explains the organization as a 'commercial insurgency' with three dimensions - political, criminal, and military - and understands the Colombian insurgency not as a monolith, but as a system of individuals with diversified interests ranging from the highly indoctrinated to the profit-motivated. This examination allows for an analysis of some of the insurgency's most unexplored characteristics: an interest in urbanizing its actions and the increased 'invisibility' of combatants, the significance of its political institutions, and the construction of its transnational networks. The volume also discusses the future of FARC in post-conflict Colombia, not only within the country but as an actor in the region. This work will be of much interest to students of insurgencies, military studies, Latin American studies, criminology, security studies, and IR.
Download or read book An Analysis of the FARC in Colombia written by Department of Defense and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-04 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph tells the narrative of the FARC in Colombia from the perspective of the counterinsurgent and presents a summary of the evolution of the FARC. The Colombian government has achieved recent success against the FARC after more than forty years and examination of their success is useful to understanding counterinsurgency warfare. Next, using counterinsurgency and state power theorists, the FARC is examined to identify and classify their behavior in their environment. This new FARC perspective is then compared to the frame of FM 3-24 to identify points of variance. Initially, the argument is made that FM 3-24 was written specifically for Iraq to the exclusion of other insurgencies around the world. This aspect of FM 324 makes following its prescription dangerous and a more inclusive reframing is past due. Consequently, the historical principles of counterinsurgency from chapter one of FM 3-24 are examined with the theory derived from Colombia's experience with the FARC as a creative way ahead and challenge to the current frame of FM 3-24. The result are the following improved counterinsurgency principles for Colombia: (1) Reassert control over the national territory, (2) A unifying strategy is essential, (3) Political and military factors combined create synergy, (4) Counterinsurgents must understand the adversary space, (5) Operations drive intelligence, (6) Insurgents must be forced away from their support and destroyed, (7) Rule of law and increasing transparency in society is essential, and (8) Counterinsurgents should commit to rapidly ending hostilities. Introduction * History * The Beginnings of the FARC - 1960s * FARC in the 1970s * FARC in the 1980s * FARC in the 1990s * FARC from 2000 - 2005 * FARC from 2005 - present * Theory * What is it that makes the FARC in Colombia unique or different? * What makes the FARC the same as any other guerrilla insurgency? * What do the theorists have to say? * Doctrine * Does FM 3-24 apply to all insurgencies or just Iraq? * Where are the doctrinal gaps for the FARC in Colombia? *Conclusion
Download or read book Sustainability of Colombian Military Strategic Support for Democratic Security written by Thomas A. Marks and published by . This book was released on 2014-07 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sea-change has occurred in troubled Colombia, as detailed in this monograph. For the first time in 40 years, cautious optimism pervades discussions of Bogota's seemingly intractable situation. Drugs, terrorism, and insurgency continue in their explosive mix, but the current government of President Alvaro Uribe has fashioned a counterinsurgency approach that holds the strategic initiative and has a chance of negating a long-standing security threat to the state. This is critical if Colombian democratic and economic advances are to continue. Colombia has become synonymous in the popular mind with an intractable war waged against narco-terrorists. Not as understood is the strategic setting, wherein the illegal drug trade is not just linked to terrorism but rather is an integral part of a leftwing insurgency that continues to talk the language of the Cold War. This insurgency is the greatest threat to Bogota and to Washington's interests in the region.
Download or read book PAST AS PROLOGUE A HISTORY OF U S COUNTERINSURGENCY POLICY IN COLOMBIA 1958 66 written by Dennis M. Rempe and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The World s Most Threatening Terrorist Networks and Criminal Gangs written by B. Schneider and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-07-20 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terrorist organizations and international criminal networks pose an increasing danger to the world. This book looks at diverse groups from Al Qaeda to Mexican drug cartels and includes a chapter on terrorist WMD threats. This look at sub-state rivals is recommended to all serious students of international security.
Download or read book Persistent Engagement in Colombia written by Mark Moyar and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-07-07 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this monograph, Dr. Mark Moyar, Brigadier General (retired) Hector Pagan, and Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Wil R. Griego analyze United States Special Operations Forces' (USSOF) assistance to Colombia in the context of decades of counterinsurgency and counternarcotics operations. While the case of Colombia is often cited as an exemplar of global Special Operations Forces (SOF) foreign engagement, the details of the engagement, and the reasons for its success, have not previously been addressed in a scholarly publication. This study represents the first comprehensive analysis of the persistent SOF engagement in Colombia. It draws upon the collective wisdom of numerous U.S. and Colombian government personnel, and the authors' own decades of experience in Colombia and other countries where the United States has undertaken prolonged partnership.The authors attribute the success of SOF engagement in Colombia to the long-term development of human capital in the Colombian security forces. As trainers, educators, and advisors, U.S. special operators helped nurture Colombian officers and NCOs who would rise through the ranks into key positions of leadership. The huge improvements in Colombian counterinsurgency and counternarcotics performance were the result, first and foremost, of dedicated and skilled Colombian leaders
Download or read book Transforming Violent Political Movements written by Kevin E. Grisham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-21 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the factors that influence violent rebellious political organisations to transform into other entities, such as political parties, criminal organisations and terrorist organisations. From the end of the Second World War until 1990, many events in the world centred on the bipolar struggle between the United States and the USSR. Although there were numerous civil wars occurring during the Cold War era, many of these conflicts went virtually unnoticed unless they were linked to the Cold War struggle for ideological dominance. In the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, the number of intra-state conflicts was prevalent around the globe. Along with the occurrence of civil wars, a variety of violent political movements also developed. Examining cases from Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia, this book addresses how violent political movements transform during and after conflict into new types of organisations using the collective political violence transformative (CPVT) model. The study uses a combination of pre-existing literature from the fields of sociology and political science, archival research, and interviews with movement members (former and active) conducted by the author. In studying the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin, the Spear of the Nation (MK) and the African National Congress (ANC), the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), Transforming Violent Political Movements paints a picture of organisations that have to respond to their environments to survive. This book will be of much interest to students of political violence, terrorism, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR.
Download or read book War Without Quarter written by Human Rights Watch (Organization) and published by Human Rights Watch. This book was released on 1998 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The laws of war and Colombia
Download or read book Colombia s Three Wars written by Gabriel Marcella and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colombia is the most troubled country in the Western Hemisphere. Drug criminals, guerrillas, and paramilitary groups are feeding a spiral of violence that makes "colombianization" a metaphor for a failing state. The authors address the strategic dimensions of the crisis. It argues that Colombia's future deeply affects regional security and U.S. interests. The country's afflictions are spilling over its borders, threatening Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and the Caribbean. At the same time, Colombia is the origin of most of the cocaine and heroin entering the United States. The fear is that, if the situation continues to worsen, the country may become balkanized, with large areas under the de facto control of guerrilla and paramilitary regimes based, in large part, on narco-economies. U.S. policy is now at a critical juncture. A decision has been made to become more engaged in the war against narcotrafficking. Yet, the question remains: Can counternarcotics be separated from counterinsurgency? The authors believe that it cannot--that everything is related to everything else--and that unless the Colombian and U.S. governments address the problem through the creation of a coherent, holistic strategy, the situation will become much worse. In the latter half of their report, they discuss both the military and nonmilitary components of such a strategy. Among other things, they contend that restrictions on U.S. police training and counterinsurgency assistance should be removed or revised in order to enable the Colombian security forces to halt the momentum of the insurgents and paramilitaries and give them incentives to negotiate seriously. They also argue that a respect for human rights is of strategic importance.
