Colombia

A narcotrafficking technique first used in Mexico now expands to other countries in Central and South America.

This paper updates and expands upon an essay published in Small Wars Journal in 2014. Some of the text from the 2014 essay has been left intact as still operative.

The aftermath of Colombia’s long FARC insurgency has left a criminal power vacuum.

By mapping the historical development of FARC’s political agenda, this paper addresses how the 2016 Peace Agreement supports facets of the FARC’s political strategy.

This paper offers a perspective on the use of Law of Armed Conflict standards vice Criminal Law standards in the context of Columbia's conflict with the FARC and current reconciliation efforts.

BACRIM in Colombia: Security Micro-Ecosystems and Violent Non-State Actor Fragmentation

Colombian Cartel Tactical Note #1: The Evolution of ‘Narco-Submarines’ Engineering

We Americans tend to invent for ourselves a comfortable U.S.-centric vision with an enemy who looks and acts more or less as we do, and a situation in which the fighting is done by conventional military units. 

If we ignore village life – or try to bend it to our view of what it should be – we will fail in Afghanistan as we did in Vietnam.

The “U.S. in the Lead” COIN approach usually fails where security force assistance could succeed.