Colombian Labyrinth: The Synergy of Drugs and Insurgency and Its Implications for Regional Stability

by Angel M. Rabasa

U.S. policy toward Colombia has been driven to a large extent by counter-narcotics considerations, but the evolving situation in that South American country confronts the United States with as much of a national security as a drug policy problem. Colombia is a geostrategically important country, whose trajectory will influence broader trends in the Andean region and beyond. Colombian Labyrinth examines the sources of instability in the country; the objectives, strategy, strengths, and weaknesses of the government, guerrillas, and paramilitaries and the balances among them; and the effects of the current U.S. assistance program. Possible scenarios and futures for Colombia are laid out, with implicaitons for both the United States and neighboring countries. The authors find that instability in Colombia stems from the interaction and synergies of the underground drug economy and armed challenges to the state's authority.

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2001

About the author

Dr. Angel M. Rabasa was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. He wrote extensively about extremism, terrorism, and insurgency. He was the lead author of The Lessons of Mumbai (2009); Radical Islam in East Africa (2009); The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey (2008); Ungoverned Territories: Understanding and Reducing Terrorism Risks (2007); Building Moderate Muslim Networks (2007); Beyond al-Qaeda, Part 1: The Global Jihadist Movement and Part 2: The Outer Rings of the Terrorist Universe (2006); and The Muslim World After 9/11 (2004). He completed the research on patterns of Islamist radicalization and terrorism in Europe, and worked on a project on deradicalization of Islamist extremists.

Other works include the International Institute for Strategic Studies Adelphi Paper No. 358, Political Islam in Southeast Asia: Moderates, Radicals, and Terrorists (2003); The Military and Democracy in Indonesia: Challenges, Politics, and Power (2002), with John Haseman; and Indonesia's Transformation and the Stability of Southeast Asia (2001), with Peter Chalk. Before joining RAND, Rabasa served in the U.S. Departments of State and Defense. He was a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the International Studies Association, and the American Foreign Service Association.

Rabasa earned a B.A. and Ph.D. in history from Harvard University and was a Knox Fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford University.

Dr. Rabasa passed away on September 25, 2016.

Reviews

[Alex Bibb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would not recommend this book to anyone really interested or even slightly interested in learning about modern Colombia. The upside to this book is that it is a very short read that can give you a very brief insight into the country in one or two days. But because it is so short it skips over very crucial elements to the peace process.