For decades, Colombia has contended with a variety of highly publicized conflicts, including the rise of paramilitary groups in response to rebel insurgencies of the 1960s, the expansion of an illegal drug industry that has permeated politics and society since the 1970s, and a faltering economy in the 1990s. An unprecedented analysis of these struggles, Guns, Drugs, and Development in Colombia brings together leading scholars from a variety of fields, blending previously unseen quantitative data with historical analysis for an impressively comprehensive assessment. Culminating in an inspiring plan for peace, based on Four Cornerstones of Pacification, this landmark work is sure to spur new calls for change in this corner of Latin America and beyond.

The only contemporary history of Colombia and the drug war and "a vividly written and often mesmerizing first-hand account of the violence" "--The Wall Street Journal"

Colombia has experienced significant political instability and violence over the past century due to a number of factors, including the proliferation of small-arms trafficking. The authors identify the sources and routes used by arms traffickers to acquire, buy, sell, receive, transfer, and ship weapons. They also examine the various groups and individuals who purchase and use these munitions. The authors examine Colombia's political conflict through the lens of small-arms trafficking and conclude with policy implications for the United States.

The three essays cover the economic, political and institutional aspects of the impact drug smuggling activities have had on the Colombian economy. In the first essay, I examine drug smuggling activities as factors of institutional change forcing Colombia to adopt an export-led growth model of economic development. Revenues earned by illegally introducing drugs into industrialized countries were recycled through the parallel foreign exchange market and used to finance illegal imports. The industrialist class which had formally enjoyed a protected market was now forced to compete. The old privileges gone, the industrialist class had no incentive to support the existing inward-oriented model in the presence of "de facto" competition in their sectors and, thus, willingly accepted the "Apertura" program. In the second essay, the political dimension is examined. It is argued that the transition to an outward-oriented model did not occur as a reaction to a fiscal crisis and the corresponding macroeconomic disequilibrium, as has been the case for other countries in Latin America. I argue that events taking place in the political realm, more precisely a crisis of governance, led agents supporting and benefiting from the state to seek the establishment of a state which coincides in many aspects with the neo-liberal state. The crisis of governance is attributed to the efforts of drug traffickers who wanted to achieve legitimization of their activities and wealth. The direction of the transformation of the state is explained as a strategy to offset the erosion of its authority and to reestablish the state as the institution that guarantees basic socio-economic services. In the third essay I use the drug smuggling case and the described effects on the Colombian economy to explore the nature of institutional dynamics. Two models--Neoclassical and New Institutional--are compared in their explanatory power to conclude: first, that the change in relative prices generated institutional changes in the Colombian case. Second, that the degree of cohesion between formal and informal institutions determines the direction of institutional change. Finally, that the structure of the international market where changes in relative prices occur matters.

Forty years after the declaration of the "war on drugs" by President Nixon, the debate on the effectiveness and costs of the ban is red-hot. Several former Latin American presidents and leading intellectuals from around the world have drawn attention to the ineffectiveness and adverse consequences of prohibitionism. This book thoroughly analyzes the drug policies of one of the main protagonists in this war. The book covers many topics: the economics of drug production, the policies to reduce consumption and decrease supply during the Plan Colombia, the effects of the drug problem on Colombia's international relations, the prevention of money laundering, the connection between drug trafficking and paramilitary politics, and strategies against organized crime. Beyond the diversity in topics, there is a common thread running through all the chapters: the need to analyze objectively what works and what does not, based on empirical evidence. Presented here for the first time to an English-speaking audience, this book is a contribution to a debate that urgently needs to transcend ideology and preconceived opinions.

VI. The U.S role