Alexandra Rachel Phelan

The Combination of All Forms of Struggle (eBook, ePUB)

Insurgent Legitimation and State Response to FARC

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Over the course of a decades-long armed conflict, the Colombian state took a variety of approaches toward its insurgent opponent, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Successive governments swung between pursuing negotiations and responding with military counterinsurgency measures. FARC, for its part, proclaimed its commitment to "the combination of all forms of struggle": seeking legitimation through both political and military means.

Investigating the relationship between FARC and the Colombian state from the outbreak of conflict in 1964 to the signing of the final peace agreement in 2016, Alexandra Rachel Phelan offers new insight into the dynamics of insurgencies. In such conflicts, both states and insurgents seek to assert their legitimacy, which has crucial implications for any prospective resolution. Phelan examines how FARC adopted different means of legitimation as part of its overall political and military strategy and how these strategies influenced government responses. She argues that the case of Colombia demonstrates that insurgents are more likely to engage in negotiations when the state recognizes their political legitimacy than when it demands their defeat. During a protracted conflict, when it is unclear that the state can win by military strength alone, offering incentives for political settlements can minimize-and perhaps even end-fighting. Drawing on interviews with former and active FARC leaders and Colombian government officials, as well as access to key primary documents, this book sheds new light on the Colombian conflict and provides rich theoretical understanding of the role of legitimacy in counterinsurgency more broadly.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Columbia University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 4. März 2025
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780231561495
• Artikelnr.: 70634717

Autorenporträt

Alexandra Rachel Phelan is a lecturer in politics and international relations in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. She is also the editor of Terrorism, Gender and Women: Toward an Integrated Research Agenda (2021).

Inhaltsangabe

Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I
1. Fighting, Talking, and the Political Dimensions of "Legitimacy" in
Insurgency
2. Proto-state Normative Systems, "Legitimacy," and a Framework of
Insurgent Legitimation in Colombia
Part II
3. A Background of the Colombian Conflict and FARC's Evolution
4. FARC Formation and "Self-Legitimation": Appeals to Charismatic and
Teleological Legitimation
5. In Pursuit of Power: FARC Consolidation, Eudaemonic Legitimation, and
the Drug Trade
Part III
6. The Betancur, Barco, and Gaviria Administrations
7. The Samper and Pastrana Administrations
8. The Uribe Administrations (2002-2006 and 2006-2010)
9. The Santos Administrations (2010-2014 and 2014-2018)
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index