Not so unusual after all

the transnational making of the boundary between “defense” and “public security” in Colombia

Abstract

This article argues that the translation of counterinsurgency operations into public order practices in the context of “post-conflict” in Colombia has allowed for the military to diffuse their “expertise” to countries allegedly far from an “internal war” condition. By its turn, this dynamic has nurtured the expansion of the circuit of military savoirs in the South-South axis. The argument unfolds into three main parts. Firstly, I trace the historical footprints of the crystallization of counterinsurgency in Colombia, by inscribing the production of the "military professional" in this country into a broader circuit of military savoirs. In a second analytical move, I analyze how discourses of national security doctrine in Colombia have been historically entangled with counterinsurgency practices. More than this: they found in the latter their center of gravity. Finally, the article faces the re-articulations of the role of the military in Colombia in the context of “post-conflict”. It claims that the penetration of military savoirs into modes of public ordering constitutes the condition not only for claims to peace in Colombia, but also for the re-positioning of Colombia as a reference in public order in the South-South circuit of military savoirs.