Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Colombia

该奖项符合SEC第五章B组的要求。《2013年综合和进一步继续拨款法案》(2013年3月26日颁布的第113-6号法律公告)的543条。该项目涉及对美国国家安全利益至关重要的哥伦比亚的冲突后重建。具体地说，这项研究评估了哥伦比亚圣卡洛斯农村直辖市78个冲突后村庄基层重建工作的差异。近十年来，这些村庄一直处于哥伦比亚革命武装力量(FARC)、民族解放军(ELN)和三个准军事团体之间国内冲突的前线。尽管距离很近，但村庄经历了不同类型的武装占领和针对平民的暴力。自该地区冲突平息以来，村庄的重建模式也出现了明显的变化。在一些村庄，居民们共同努力，清除公共空间的地雷，重建被摧毁的基础设施，而其他村庄则没有组织起来进行重建。该项目试图通过追踪地方冲突动态与随后的地方建设和平之间的关系，找出这种差异的原因。智力价值：该项目力求查明成功建设和平背后的关键因素，并假定冲突期间的动态是冲突后建设和平成败不可或缺的一部分。尽管有大量关于内战的文献，但社会科学研究很少关注冲突后的背景。关于冲突后环境的现有研究没有考虑到冲突动态和冲突后现象之间的理论联系以及促进和平的因素。通过侧重于哥伦比亚各村庄的地方重建活动，并对这些结果与当地冲突动态之间的关系进行理论上的比较研究，该项目将描绘冲突动态如何通过对村庄机构稳定和社会网络的影响而影响重建工作。该项目包括一个根据档案资料汇编的原始数据库和一项居民调查，以确定78个社区中每个社区的独特冲突动态。利用数据库和调查答复，量化分析将揭示冲突动态与重建成果之间的关系，如排雷活动、挖掘身体和前战斗人员重返社会。利用半结构化访谈和历史研究对四个村庄案例进行深入的定性研究，将促进对重建活动的了解，并追踪它们与暴力和强迫移徙模式等冲突动态的关系。更广泛的影响：通过确定对冲突后重建和稳定至关重要的当地因素，这项研究将有助于改进今后的和平建设努力。许多国际特派团未能建立可持续和平，因为它们忽视了当地的动态，无论是在战争过渡时期还是在战后环境中都是如此。了解成功重建的根源对美国在哥伦比亚乃至更广泛的经济和安全利益具有战略重要性。美国与哥伦比亚签订了自由贸易协定，哥伦比亚是南美的强大合作伙伴，而其他国家则公开对美国怀有敌意。因此，美国希望确保哥伦比亚的稳定并了解其内部动态。此外，政治叛乱和犯罪集团在哥伦比亚冲突期间也采取了类似的策略，这表明有关后续基层重建努力的见解适用于各种冲突背景和稳定对美国国家安全至关重要的国家。项目成果将与政策制定者和学术受众分享，最终包括一本书长的手稿和几篇文章。档案数据集、半结构化访谈和调查都将在网上免费提供。

This award satisfies Division B, Title V, Sec. 543 of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-6, enacted on March 26, 2013).The project addresses post-conflict reconstruction in Colombia, a country critical to US national security interests. Specifically, the research evaluates variation in grassroots reconstruction efforts across 78 post-conflict villages in the rural municipality of San Carlos, Colombia. For nearly a decade, these villages were caught on the front lines of the civil conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and three paramilitary groups. Despite their proximity, villages experienced different types of armed occupation and violence wielded against civilians. Since the conflict subsided in this region, villages have also revealed stark variation in their reconstruction patterns. In some villages, residents have worked together to de-mine public spaces and rebuild destroyed infrastructure while other villages have not organized around reconstruction. This project seeks to delineate the causes of this variation by tracing the relationship between local conflict dynamics and subsequent local peace-building. Intellectual Merit: This project seeks to identify the key factors behind successful peace-building and hypothesizes that dynamics during conflict are integral to post-conflict peace-building success or failure. Despite a rich body of literature on civil wars, social scientific studies have seldom focused on post-conflict settings. Extant research on post-conflict settings has failed to consider the theoretical link between conflict dynamics and post-conflict phenomena and the factors that facilitate peace. By focusing on local reconstruction activities across villages in Colombia, and implementing a comparative, theoretically driven study of the relationship between these outcomes and local conflict dynamics, this project will delineate how conflict dynamics affect reconstruction efforts through their impact on village institutional stability and social networks.The project includes an original database compiled from archival sources and a resident survey to determine the distinct conflict dynamics in each of the 78 communities. Using the database and survey responses, quantitative analysis will uncover the relationship between the conflict dynamics and the reconstruction outcomes such as de-mining activities, exhumation of bodies, and re-integration of ex-combatants. An in-depth qualitative study of four village cases, using semi-structured interviews and historical research, will advance the understanding of reconstruction activities and trace their relationship with conflict dynamics, such as patterns of violence and forced migration. Broader Impacts: By identifying the local factors that are critical to post-conflict reconstruction and stability, this research will help to improve future peace-building efforts. Numerous international missions have failed to establish sustainable peace because they have ignored local dynamics, both in transitions from war and in post-war environments. Understanding the roots of successful reconstruction is of strategic importance to U.S. economic and security interests in Colombia, and more broadly. The United States shares a free-trade agreement with Colombia, and Colombia is a strong partner in South America, whereas other countries are openly hostile to the United States. Therefore, the United States would like to ensure Colombia's stability and understand its internal dynamics. Additionally, political insurgencies and criminal groups have wielded similar strategies during the Colombian conflict, suggesting that insights concerning subsequent grassroots reconstruction efforts are applicable in a variety of conflict settings and countries where stability is important to U.S. national security. Project results will be shared with both policymakers and academic audiences and eventually include a book-length manuscript and several articles. The archival dataset, semi-structured interviews, and surveys will all be made freely available online.