Suchergebnisse

This article is part of a multi-year study of governance structures in the midst of insecurity and organized crime in fragile sub-state regions, where in the absence of a strong state, non-state actors (like insurgents, traffickers and tribal warlords) engage in political and socioeconomic governance. Building on our prior work on West Africa and the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal belt, this paper focuses on the Andean borderlands, drawing on recent fieldwork in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. We explore patterns of behavior in which competition among violent non-state actors is not the norm. Instead, several instances were found in which violent non-state actors work collaboratively or have tacit non-interference agreements to provide public goods through arrangements we characterize as "complementary governance." We therefore argue that, to understand how illicit authority emerges, it is not sufficient to consider one armed non-state actor in isolation or in a dichotomy to the state. As we contend, we have to take into account the complex connections and interactions among different (violent) non-state structures. Moving beyond state versus non-state governance to governance that is constitutive of various non-state groups, the perspective put forward in this article thus is aimed to enrich the current debate on governance and security.

This article explores the outcomes of the peace initiatives of two Colombian borderland communities: Samaniego and Las Mercedes. Both attempted to persuade armed actors to abide by certain rules in their territories, yet the community of Samaniego was more effective than that of Las Mercedes. We use data from fieldwork, including interviews, observation and documents, and secondary literature, to compare the two initiatives. We argue that, despite similar regional circumstances, including the presence of multiple armed actors and the strategic importance of both territories for drug cultivation and trafficking, the outcomes differed for three reasons: first, the distinct characteristics of the civil resistance movements, including the levels of participation, cohesion and the type of leadership; second, the differing nature of the relationship of each community with armed actors; third, the role of external actors. Further, we found that national peace processes can catalyse local peace efforts.