Strategic Posture Review: Colombia

Anastasia Moloney | World Politics Review | 2009-12-16

During the last five decades, Colombia's foreign, defense and strategic priorities have been driven and determined by the country's internal armed conflict, with the "War on Drugs" becoming the dominant paradigm from the 1980s onwards. This, in turn, has defined Colombia's relations with Latin America -- particularly, in recent years, with its Andean neighbors, Ecuador and Venezuela -- as well as its relationship with the United States and Europe.

Colombia's struggle to stem cocaine production, its fight against the drug cartels that sprung up around the drug trade, and its war against the largest and longest-running guerrilla insurgency in Latin America -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) -- from the 1960s onwards have been the most important reference points for its foreign, defense and strategic policy. In this Strategic Posture Review, WPR examines the foreign policy and strategy of Colombia.

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