Cooperation in the midst of chaos: An examination of Colombia's civil-military relationship and its effort in combating socio-political destabilization

Internal strife has plagued the South American country of Colombia for well over forty years. In an effort to combat the different subversive elements within its borders, the Government of Colombia developed an interagency counterinsurgency strategy that takes a whole-of-government approach. This approach takes many governmental functions and institutions and places them under one counterinsurgency "umbrella." The cornerstone of this interagency model is strong civil-military cooperation. What this research project seeks to accomplish is to first apply the Concordance Theory of Civil-Military Relations to Colombia's unique civil-military relationship. Secondly, this research project seeks to understand how the Colombian interagency counterinsurgency model has balanced the country's security and socio-political development and sustainability. Specifically, this research project attempts to answer the question of how this interagency model of counterinsurgency influences socio-political and security sustainability since the implementation of Plan Colombia. The methodology for this research project will include a combination of primary source reviews, comparative case study examination and simple trend analysis of significant security and socio-political variables. This methodological approach will best describe the unique political, military and social dynamics taking place within Colombia. This analysis of Colombia's interagency counterinsurgency strategy is relevant not only to Colombia but to many other countries facing similar challenges in Latin America and around the world. The applicability of this model to other insurgency scenarios will also be briefly examined.