‘Iron Fists in Iron Gloves’: The Political Economy of US Terrorocracy Promotion in Colombia 1
Most analysts of US post-cold war policy in Colombia argue that the US has switched from targeting Communist guerrillas to a war on drugs and a new war on terror. Contrary to these claims this article shows that the US continues to back Colombian counter-insurgency efforts which essentially amount to a strategy of state terrorism under a democratic façade (terrorocracy). Moreover, this policy continues to be pursued because the US has long employed counter-insurgency warfare to stabilise social formations conducive to US political and economic interests. In short, counter-insurgency warfare is the military strategy par excellence for the policing and reproduction of global capitalism via localised proxy forces throughout the third world. In Colombia this strategy continues to have profound consequences for human rights, social justice and democracy.
Critical terrorism studies: an activist scholar perspective
There is a pressing need for critical terrorism studies. Mainstream terrorism studies obscures the class function of terrorism, values the worthy victims of official enemies over the unworthy victims of official allies, keeps Northern state terrorism off the agenda and deploys the concept of terrorism in a way that deleitimises opposition to the power of the global North while legitimising the global North’s own political violence. Critical terrorism studies should break with mainstream terrorism studies on all of these fronts. It should address how terrorism has evolved as an instrument of the power and privilege of the global North. It should treat the victims of terrorism equally on the basis of their common humanity, which means the terrorism of the global North or global South should not be treated as the only terrorism that matters. And it should use the label terrorism to hold up a mirror to those who accuse others of terrorist acts but who engage in, sponsor or are complicit in such acts themselves. Finally, it should situate its challenge to terrorism within a challenge to the use of political violence in general.
The Challenge of Haiti’s Future
Abstract : The authors address three issues: social and economic advances in Haiti, achieving democracy and the rule of law, and the role of the United States and the international community in Haiti. They analyze the continuing need for reforms, the need to manage Haitian and foreign expectations in the area, the need to assist Haiti to formulate more effective political and economic decisionmaking processes, and the need for organized and integrated involvement of outside actors and support for sustainable development of the country. The authors set forth observations and policy recommendations.