Kroc-Kellogg Peace, Conflict, Crime and Violence Workshop

“Pathways of Post-Conflict Violence: The Assassination of Social Leaders in Colombia”

 

Juan Albarracín (Notre Dame), Juan Corredor (CUNY), Juan Pablo Milanese (ICESI), Inge Valencia (ICESI) y Jonas Wolff (PRIF)

Abstract:
Violence in post-conflict settings is usually attributed to a post-war boom in organized crime, facilitated by the demobilization of armed groups and the persisting weakness of the state. In this paper, we argue that this is only one pathway of post-conflict violence. A second causal pathway emerges from the challenges that peace processes can constitute for entrenched local political orders. By fostering greater political inclusion, the implementation of peace agreements may threaten subnational political elites that have used the context of armed conflict to ally with armed non-state actors (ANSAs). Violence is then used as a means to preserve such de facto authoritarian local orders. The assassination of social leaders (líderes sociales) in Colombia, which has increased significantly since the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla, is a case in point. We argue that this specific type of targeted violence can, in fact, be attributed to different, locally specific configurations that resemble the two pathways. The paper combines Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with two case studies of the municipalities of Sardinata (Norte de Santander) and Suárez (Cauca) to establish and illustrate the two pathways.

Open to Ph.D. students, fellows, and faculty who are interested in civil war, violence, crime, peace, conflict management, and conflict resolution. The workshop is an informal gathering to discuss work-in-progress, dissertation chapters and proposals, practice conference talks, etc.

The workshop format assumes that participants come to the workshop having read the paper. A discussant will start the discussion with 5-10 minutes of comments, then the floor is open.

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