| The main purpose of this dissertation is to examine the internal dynamic of U.S. foreign policy towards Colombia during the administration of Colombian President, Ernesto Samper Pizano (1994--1998). The study is based on a constructivist interpretation of the drug issue on the U.S. foreign policy agenda and proposes that the focus traditionally followed by the U.S. with regards to drugs has been determined by the ideas, beliefs and images that U.S. policy-makers have on the drug issue. It, likewise, proposes that U.S. policy towards Colombia between 1994 and 1998 was a product of a group of internal factors, including the electoral cycles of 1994 and 1996, as well as the bureaucratic positions and interests at play, that caused U.S. policy towards Colombia to clearly become tougher with respect to earlier years. Likewise, these elements contributed to Washington's focus towards Bogota to be fragmented, inconsistent and incoherent, which, in turn, produced adverse and counter-productive consequences for Colombian internal stability. As a case study, it analyzes the annual process of certification between 1994 and 1998, using the pluralist and bureaucratic models. |
