Colombia's Road to Recovery: Security and Governance 1982-2010

Between 2002 and 2010, Colombia made remarkable progress toward establishing security and governance in the face of multiple threats: insurgents, paramilitaries, and organized crime, all supported by illicit markets (most notably drug trafficking). In 1998, US intelligence analysts were predicting the overthrow of the Colombian government by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgency. However, the Colombian government and society rallied to develop new strategies to confront the threats. The United States also provided significant, sustained assistance. By 2005, the government had seized the strategic offensive. In 2008, government forces began to regularly kill or capture FARC senior leaders. Although the conflict is not over, prospects for terminating the conflict look promising. This study set out to determine and describe how Colombia went from near failure to palpable success.