Based on geo- and biopolitical analyses, this book reconsiders how security policies and practices legitimate state and non-state violence in the Colombian conflict. Using the case study of the official Democratic Security Policy (DSP), Echavarría examines how security discourses write the political identities of state, self and others. She claims that the DSP delimits politics, the political, and the imaginaries of peace and war through conditioning the possibilities for identity formation. In/security in Colombia offers an innovative application of a large theoretical framework on the performative character of security discourses and furthers a nuanced understanding of the security problematique in a postcolonial setting. This wide-reaching study will benefit students, scholars and policy-makers in the fields of security, peace and conflict, and Latin American issues.

The freedom of expression and the freedom of information are the indispensable components of free media. Without these two basic rights, an informed, active, and participatory citizenry is impossible. Members of the media require special protections to enable them to operate freely in order to advocate for human rights, public discourse, and the plurality of ideas. The Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety is an essential reference source that evaluates how diverse threats impact on journalists’ wellbeing, their right to freedom of expression, and overall media freedoms in various contexts and assesses inadequacies in national security policies, planning, and coordination relating to the safety of journalists in different countries. Featuring research on topics such as freedom of the press, professional journalism, and media security, this book is ideally designed for journalists, news writers, editors, columnists, press, broadcasters, newscasters, government officials, lawmakers, diplomats, international relations officers, law enforcement, industry professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.

Running late for work one morning in September 1994, Tom Hargrove, communications director for an international agricultural aid organization in Cali, Colombia, was mildly annoyed when he spotted a roadblock, or retén, manned by soldiers in fatigues. He chafed at the delay, but told himself that guerrillas and kidnappers didn’t operate on a main highway in broad daylight. But Hargrove had been dreadfully mistaken. Despite his assertions that he worked for a non-profit agricultural agency, he was forced at gunpoint into a vehicle and driven into the mountains by communist narco-terrorists who believed he was a valuable hostage. For almost a year, Hargrove was held by the guerillas and moved from one remote location to another. To maintain his grip on sanity, he recorded his daily experiences in makeshift journals: in a checkbook; on children’s notebooks; and on scraps of paper scrounged during his ordeal. Hargrove’s story, originally published in 1995, was the basis for the major motion picture Proof of Life, starring Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan. Now available again in paperback, Long March to Freedom chronicles one man’s spirited determination to hang onto life and faith amid nearly impossible circumstances.