David Kilcullen has had a few books included on my shelf recently. As a military expert on Guerrilla Warfare, I was thrilled to find this new book on the Colombian Civil War which he coauthors with a group of specialists who went on extensive field research around Colombia, with a view to learning lessons about the relative recent successes at a peace, in order that other similar international (mainly African) nations can apply similar strategies in order to prevent conflict escalation. I have researched FARC (FARC-EP) and the Colombia Civil War and criminal narcotrafficking issues for a long period of time. Very often getting real information about FARC and the guerrilla conflict can be quite difficult and the literature is relatively sparse. I found this book which is very up to date, to fill in a lot of the missing jigsaw pieces and it has the best par excellence new material that I have learnt about FARC since I read Ingrid Betancourt’s autobiographical account of her kidnapping by these jungle communist insurgents. From the FARC inception by Manuel Marulanda over six decades ago, rural zones in Colombia have been dangerous warzones of guerrilla occupation as the FARC fight a ideological struggle against government forces (Colombian Army and Police), narcotraffickers, right-wing paramilitaries, and USA government aid and materiel. The conflict has ebbed and flowed but towards the 1990s, FARC moved on the capital and had Bogota surrounded, forcing the Colombian government to act in order to avoid revolution or a collapsed failed state. Innovative new mature and thoughtful ideas and policies from a succession of populist Government leaders succeeded in changing the face of the conflict. On the whole, FARC were driven back and in retreat. Targeting of their leadership meant that many key members of he secretariat were murdered. FARC had grown significantly and despite the fall of the Berlin Wall and the lost support of the Soviet Union they remained powerful due to conflict profiteering by boosting their coffers with billions of pounds of cocaine drug-trafficking dirty cash. Peace talks were at the time of publication underway between FARC and the Colombian government in Havana, Cuba. Will FARC follow ELN and disarm sand become active in government democratic politics? Or will the habits of civil war be prolonged. Since the pushback and lead up to peace talks, government have focussed activity not just on military solutions but have also strove to win hearts and minds. The conclusion of the book compares the situation in Colombia with the British conflict in Malaya and also the more recent troubles in Afghanistan. The book is relatively concise yet freshly written with clear ideas and well-researched expert analysis. For any student of the Colombian Civil War this should be essential reading.
