Abstract
The tension between ideology and pragmatism in the making of foreign policy exists to some degree in all nations, including Colombia. Some analysts would point to the fact that Colombia has largely adhered to a close relationship with the United States since World War I as evidence of a predominantly conservative ideological orientation in the nation’s foreign policy. That perspective would be further reinforced by the fact that during the Cold War years Colombian governments, without exception, adhered to the Western, anti-Communist position dominated by the United States. There were administrations during which that orientation was more pronounced than others, as for instance during the conservative-dominated 1950s, when Colombia was the only Latin American country to commit troops to the Korean War, and other administrations that adhered to a more multilateral position, such as the governments of Carlos Lieras Restrepo (1966–1970) or Alfonso Lopez Michelsen (1970–1974), which opened up trade relationships with Soviet bloc countries and took a moderate position on Cuba’s place in hemispheric affairs. However, overall there is little debate over the fact that Colombian governments in the Cold War years were intensely anti-Communist.
The author would like to express his appreciation to a number of individuals who kindly gave their time to discuss Colombian foreign policy: former president Cesar Gaviria; foreign minister Jaime Bermudez, vice-minister of foreign relations Clemencia Forero, former vice-minister Camilo Reyes, former foreign minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto, Senator Rodrigo Rivera, and Rodrigo Botero, former finance minister. Above all, the author is grateful to his longtime friend and colleague Alfonso López Caballero for his generous assistance and insights. Juliana Ramfrez, a former graduate student in Political Science at the University of Calgary and a graduate of Universidad Externado de Colombia, provided excellent assistance with the initial literature review for this chapter.
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Notes
For two insightful synthetic assessments of Colombian foreign policy and scholarship in the field see: Arlene Tickner, “Colombia: U.S. subordinate, Autonomous Actor, or Something in Between,” in Frank Mora and Jeanne Hey, eds., Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Policy (Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), 165–84;
Roberto Gonzalez Arana, “La Política Exterior de Colombia a finales del Siglo XX,” Investigacion y Desarrollo 12, no. 2 (2004), 258–85.
For discussion on the regional implications of the Colombian security challenges, see the following: María Clara Izaza, “Colombia y sus vecinos,” pp. 63–68, and Fernando Ribadeneira, “Relaciones Colombo-Ecuatorianas,” pp. 69–76, in Martha Ardila, compilador, Colombia y la seguridad hemisférica (Bogotá: Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2001).
Luz del Socorro Ramfrez, “Colombia y sus vecinos,” Nueva Sociedad, no. 192 (July-August, 2004), 144–56.
Socorro Ramírez, “Colombia-Brasil: Distante Vecinidad se Fortalece en la Seguridad y el Comercio,” Análisis Politico. No. 58 (September-December, 2006), 3–34.
Socorro Ramírez, “El gobierno de Uribe y los paises vecinos,” Análisis Político, no. 57 (May-August, 2006), 65–84.
Richard Millet, “Colombia’s conflicts: the Spill-Over Effects of a Wider War,”, The North-South Agenda, no. 57 (2002).
For discussion of Colombian dependency, see: Gerhard Drekonja, Retos de la política exterior colombiana (Bogotá: CEREC-CERI, 1983).
Drekonja, “Autonomía periférica redefinida: América Latina en la década de los noventa,” in María Mercedes Gómez, Gerhard Drekonja, Juan Gabriel Toklatian, Leonardo Carvajal H. “Redefiniendo la autonomía en Política internacional,” Documentos Ocasionales (CEI), 31 (July-September, 1993).
Fernando Enrique Cardoso y Enzo Faletto, Dependenciay desar-rollo en América Latina. Ensayo de interpretatión sociológica (Mexico D.F.: Siglo XXI, 1969).
Helio Jaguaribe, “Autonomía periférica y hegemonía centrica,” Estudios Internationales 46 (1979) 91–130.
Tickner, “Colombia: U.S. subordinate.” Not all are agreed that dependency is a negative. See, for instance, the analysis by Carlos Escudé, El realismo de los Estados débiles (Buenos Aires: GEL, 1995).
Tickner, “Intervención por invitación: Claves de la Política exterior colombiana y sus debilidades principales,” Colombia Internacional, no. 65 (January-June, 2007), 90–111.
Socorro Ramírez, and Luís Alberto Restrepo (compiladores), Colombia: entre la reinsertión y el aislamiento (Bogotá: Siglo del Hombres Editores, 1997), p. 68.
Arana, “La Política Exterior de Colombia,” p. 275. On López Michelsen as both foreign minister and president, see Stephen J. Randall, Alfonso López Michelsen, su vida su época (Bogotá: Villegas Editores, 2007). Colombian relations with Cuba quickly became strained, however, when Cuba supported a failed M-19 initiative to establish a rural insurgency. The Liberal government of Julio César Turbay Ayala broke relations in 1981.
Colombia, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministra Noemí Sanín), Actuar en el mundo: la política exterior de Colombia frente al siglo XXI (Bogotá: MRE, 1993). Alberto Lieras Camargo was the first secretary-general of the OAS. Gaviria served two terms as secretary-general, 1994–1999 and 1999–2004. See also Randall, Alfonso lópez Michelsen, su vida su época.
Exteriores, La política exterior de Colombia y el movimiento de Faíes No Alineados (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo, 1995).
Ramirez y Restrepo (compi-ladores), Colombia: entre la reinserción y el aislamiento (1997).
For early analyses of the Colombian relationship with nonhemispheric regions, see José Luis Ramírez, Las Relaciones Internationales de Colombia con el Medio Oriente: Evolutión, Desarrollo y Perspectivas (Universidad de Los Andes: CEI, Nov-dic. De 1988).
Dora Rothlisberger, Las Relaciones Internationales de Colombia con los Principales Países Asiáticos de la Cuenca del Pacífico (Universidad de Los Andes: CEI, Enero-Febrero de 1989).
On Colombian security issues and the European relationship, see Diego Cardona C., Bernard Labatut, Stephanie Lavaux, and Rubén Sánchez, eds., Encrucijadas de la seguridad en Europe y las Américas (Bogotá: Universidad del Rosario, 2004).
Rodrigo Pardo, “Algunos aspectos de la Política exterior colombiana en la administración Samper,” Colombia International., no. 27 (September, 1994), 3–8.
On Zuñiga’s resignation, see New York Times March 12, 1996. On the policy implications of U.S. certification, see Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, “Condicionalidad y Certificación: El caso de Colombia,” Nueva Sociedad, no. 148 (March-April, 1997), 98–107.
See Guillermo Fernández de Soto, La Nueva Integratión Andina (Comunidad Andina, 2003).
After his presidency Pastrana wrote about the collapse of the negotiations with FARC. See Andres Pastrana Arango, La Palabra bajofuego (Bogotá: Planeta, 2005).
Pastrana address, April 12, 2000, http://www.asne.org/kiosk/archive/convention/2000/pastrana.htm. Accessed November 28, 2008. On Pastrana, see Diana Marcela Rojas, “La Política exterior del gobierno Pastrana en tres actos,” Análisis Político, no. 46 (May-August, 2002)
Rojas, “Balance de la Política internacional del gobierno Uribe,” Análisis Político, no. 57 (May-August, 2006), 85–105.
Diana Marcela Rojas, “Balance de la Política internacional del gobierno Uribe,” Análisis Político, no. 57 (May-August, 2006), 89.
Leonardo Carvajal y Rodrigo Pardo, “La internationalización del conflicto doméstico y los procesos de paz,” in Martha Ardila y Diego Cardona, eds. Prioridades y desafios de la política exterior cobmbiana (Bogotá: Editorial Planeta, 2001).
Arlene Tickner has argued effectively that even during those administrations that had sought to expand Colombian foreign relations internationally, relations with the United States remained paramount. See, for instance, Tickner, “Intervención por invitación: Claves de la Política exterior colombiana y sus debilidades principales,” Colombia Internacional, revista no. 65 (January-June, 2007), 90–111.
See, for instance, Rojas, Análisis Político, no. 57 (May-August, 2006), 92.
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© 2011 Gian Luca Gardini and Peter Lambert
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Randall, S.J. (2011). The Continuing Pull of the Polar Star: Colombian Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era. In: Gardini, G.L., Lambert, P. (eds) Latin American Foreign Policies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230118270_9
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