Showing Teeth to the Dragons: State-building by Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, 2002–2006 - Softcover

Kline, Harvey F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0817355596 ISBN 13: 9780817355593

Publisher: University Alabama Press, 2009

Synopsis

The civil war in Colombia has waxed and waned for sixty years, with shifting goals, programs, and tactics among the contending parties. Bursts of appalling violence are punctuated by uneasy truces, cease-fires, and attempts at reconciliation. Varieties of Marxism, the economics of narco-trafficking, peasant land hunger, poverty, and oppression mix together in a toxic stew that has claimed the uncounted lives of peasants, conscript soldiers, and those who simply got in the way.

Kline argues that the first administration of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez marks a decisive break in this seemingly endless cycle. Not only were the levels of homicide and kidnapping dramatically reduced, but the state took the offensive against the insurgents, strengthening the armed forces which in turn demonstrated clear support for the president's policy.

However, Kline believes that these changes, although dramatic, are not necessarily permanent, and discusses what challenges must be overcome for the permanent reduction of organized violence in this war-torn nation.

About this title

About the Author

Harvey F. Kline is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Chronicle of a Failure Foretold: The Peace Process of Colombian President Andres Pastraña and State Building and Conflict Resolution in Colombia, 1986–1994, which was awarded a Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award.

Review

“[Showing Teeth to the Dragons] advances our understanding of the current situation in Colombia by offering a convincing theoretical framework and placing events in the current decade in the context of Colombia’s historical development.”

―Philip Mauceri, co–editor of Politics in the Andes: Identity, Conflict, and Reform and Ethnic Conflict and International Relations

Edition details

• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0817355596
• ISBN 13: 9780817355593
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 268