The Military After Conflict: The Colombian Armed Forces After Peace

• In Event: Society and Institutions After Conflict

Abstract

In 2016, the Colombian government signed a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), ending the longest insurgency in the Western Hemisphere. Despite the espoused peace, significant challenges remain for the Colombian state. Provisions of the peace deal include commitments to provide infrastructure, education, health services and land reform in parts of the territory where the presence of the central government has been sporadic at best and nonexistent at worse. These spaces are isolated, difficult to reach, and sometimes still the centers of conflict between remaining armed non-state actors. To meet this challenge, the Colombian government is considering relying on one of its most robust and ready agents, the military. While the military has committed human rights abuses, the Colombian Army also has a pre-existing doctrine of Integral Action, which emphasizes and unarmed role for the military in state development. This paper argues that the military can have a transformative role in a post-conflict Colombia, and that Integral Action can be used to bridge the armed forces towards peacetime as combat becomes less frequent and less necessary.

Author

• Andrew Ivey, University of California Riverside