Negotiating Peace with your Allies? Lessons from the Government-United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) negotiations of 2003-2004

Dr Andrew Thomson is a Senior Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast and a Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. He is also on the board of the Conflict Research Society. Andrew Thomson's research interests reside in the areas of conflict analysis, peace studies, political violence, and US foreign policy with a focus on paramilitaries/pro-government militias, counterinsurgency, irregular warfare, and peace negotiations and peace processes.

This paper/presentation assesses the when and why states negotiate peace and/or demobilization with paramilitary groups. I argue that states are more likely to negotiate with paramilitary groups when the government has limited control over paramilitary allies, when paramilitaries conduct mass human rights violations, and under domestic and international pressure. I build this argument by reviewing the Colombian government's negotiated agreements with the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) in Santa Fe de Ralito in 2003-2005.