Colombia - not so unusual after all : a case study on the transnational making of the boundary between 'defence' and 'public security'
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
African Sun Media
Abstract
Colombia is often mentioned as an anomaly within the expected framing of defence and public security, an anomaly that
arises from a faulty division of labour between the police and the military. In this chapter, I offer a different interpretation:
I use Colombia as an entry point to analyse the processes through which the boundary distinguishing ‘defence’ and ‘public
security’ has historically been built. The argument unfolds in two parts. Firstly, I analyse how counterinsurgency was raised
to a privileged position in the Colombian military doctrine in the second half of the 20th century. The second analytical move
looks at the dynamic between the United States and Colombia in the making of a counterinsurgency a la colombiana and
inscribes this dynamic in the hemispheric circulation of military savoirs. By dissecting the main direction of transmission in this
circuit, I show how defining Colombia as a ‘malfunction’ in the division of labour between police and military is misleading, as
it does not account for the transnational impact on what has come to constitute ‘defence’ in Colombia. Moreover, the framing
of Colombia as an anomaly avoids questioning the assumptions upon which disputes of anomaly/normality rest. I argue that,
by focusing on the circulation of military savoirs, it becomes apparent that the domains of public security and defence are
not only constitutively merged, but also transnationally so. This claim is important, given that the boundary separating these
domains came to characterise a central part of our institutional imaginaries of democracy since the 20th century, and perhaps
more strongly since the late 1980s in Latin America.
Description
CITATION: Viana, M. T. 2020. Colombia - not so unusual after all : a case study on the transnational making of the boundary between 'defence' and 'public security', in Liebenberg, I., Kruijt, D. & Paranjpe, S. (eds) 2020. Defence diplomacy & national security strategy : views from the global south. Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS, doi:10.18820/9781928480556/03.
The original publication is available at https://africansunmedia.store.it.si/za
The original publication is available at https://africansunmedia.store.it.si/za
Keywords
Colombia, National security -- Developing countries
Citation
Viana, M. T. 2020. Colombia - not so unusual after all : a case study on the transnational making of the boundary between 'defence' and 'public security', in Liebenberg, I., Kruijt, D. & Paranjpe, S. (eds) 2020. Defence diplomacy & national security strategy : views from the global south. Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS, doi:10.18820/9781928480556/03.