Global forces: a new phase in Colombia’s political violence

Kirton employs concepts from the literature on globalization to ask the question: to what extent has Colombia’s internal violence, and civil societal organization, become transcended by the processes of capitalist globalization? Following decades of protracted civil war, he argues that Colombia’s armed conflict has entered a new, transnational phase of political violence, characterized by the dynamics and imperatives of military globalization and the globalization of the security state. The United States military forces, transnational corporations, international drug cartels, global arms dealers, transnational capitalist elites, supranational geo-governance organizations, and private security multinational corporations, have hastened Colombia’s enmeshment into a world military order; while armed actors, indigenous groups, human rights campaigners, social movements and non-governmental organizations have forged transnational linkages from within Colombia. Kirton concludes that Colombia’s internal violence is as much driven by external forces and global systems as by domestic actors and political institutions. Furthermore, the logic of globalization has privileged militarization and the ‘securitization of development’ over the human security of Colombia’s poor majority. A dissertation submitted in part-fulfilment of the reguirements of the degree of M.Sc. in Globalisation and Latin-American Development, 2008-9.