Buy Off and Buy In: Flipping the FARC

Abstract

The election of President Juan Manuel Santos in Columbia marks a new era in Columbian security policy. administration has failed to implementInstead of focusing on a solely military solution to conflict with Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as his predecessor did, Santos has committed to a multifaceted effort to resolve the dispute. In spite of this hope, the Santos many critical non-military policy proposals. Like Santos, the scholarly community has ignored important comparative studies of counterterrorism. This essay attempts to fill a gap in the literature by framing a discussion of FARC in light of new advances in counter-insurgency studies. While the field has progressed in its conceptions of insurgency in light of the rise and success of Al Qaeda, lessons learned here have not sufficiently spread to other networks. Scholarship in the last decade has revealed that negotiating with insurgent networks is best done in nimble and discrete ways, not in black and white. A comparative analysis of the historical demise of insurgent networks, combined with important lessons learned in the War on Terror will add theoretical weight to current policy proposals, as well as generate new recommendations for Colombian strategic security.