The presence of protests, sometimes during violent conflict and civil war, across the globe, seems to contradict the common view that civil war and protests are mutually exclusive episodes and do not belong to a continuum. Instead, peaceful – and less peaceful – protests can coincide with...

This article analyzes the evolution of paramilitary forces in Colombia, and how under successive efforts from the Colombian government to tackle problems related to the lack of state presence in the country (particularly the country-side) there have been successive bullwhip effects around those...

Colombia can be regarded as the longest running civil war in the world. However, the country can also be seen as an example of successful peace initiatives and failed peace attempts; a series of lessons have been learned in regards to peace building and reconciliation. The current peace process...

This paper presents the first phase of a work in progress which aims at building a System Dynamics simulation model of the theory of the Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto. This theory proposes that the explanation for the fail of capitalism in Latin America should be looked in the informal...

The chapter explores the validity of using rational choice approaches to analyze armed conflict and assess their utility to deal with the understanding of armed civil war. Ignoring rational based approaches disregards a useful tool that can illustrate interesting elements in the comprehension of...

It is argued that civil war and protests are mutually exclusive processes. However, the prevalence of protests and their proximity with or simultaneity to armed conflict contradicts this idea. Conflict and confrontation involve different types of interactions between the state and its opponents,...

One of the most valuable features of Capital and Ideology is its concern to take history seriously and consider how the emergence of different political and economic regimes relate to discourses about fairness and justice across time. This paper pushes this agenda further by acknowledging that...

This paper investigates the emergence of a military approach as a means of solving protracted civil conflicts in the particular cases of Sri Lanka and Colombia. The article attempts a comparative study of the military alternatives emerging as an end to civil war in both countries. The approach...

This paper presents the first phase of a work in progress which aims at building a System Dynamics model around two theories concerning internal conflict. The model will asses the particular case of Colombia, that is characterized by the presence of armed groups that interact strongly with the...

The ability of the United States (U.S.) to influence policies in Colombia is indisputable. The U.S. is Colombia’s largest trading partner, and this alone provides the U.S. with great power with regards to Colombian policymaking. U.S. power is not only manifest within the economic realm,...