For decades, Colombia has contended with a variety of highly publicized conflicts, including the rise of paramilitary groups in response to rebel insurgencies of the 1960s, the expansion of an illegal drug industry that has permeated politics and society since the 1970s, and a faltering economy in the 1990s. An unprecedented analysis of these struggles, Guns, Drugs, and Development in Colombia brings together leading scholars from a variety of fields, blending previously unseen quantitative data with historical analysis for an impressively comprehensive assessment. Culminating in an inspiring plan for peace, based on Four Cornerstones of Pacification, this landmark work is sure to spur new calls for change in this corner of Latin America and beyond.

Jennifer S. Holmes is Associate Professor of Political Economy and Political Science at the University of Texas at Dallas and is the author of Terrorism and Democratic Stability.

Sheila Amin Gutiérrez ee Piñeres is Professor of Economics and Political Economy, and Associate Provost at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Kevin M. Curtin is Associate Professor of Geography at George Mason University in Virginia.

• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Historical and Geographical Propensities to Violence
• Chapter 3: Colombian Economic History: Regional Context and Colombian Policies
• Chapter 4: The Main Actors in the 1990s and into the Twenty-first Century: Guerrillas and Paramilitaries
• Chapter 5: Differences within Colombia and Available Subnational Data
• Chapter 6: Guns and Protection: Guerrillas and Paramilitaries
• Chapter 7: The Effects of Illegal Drugs and Violence on the Colombian Economy
• Chapter 8: Acknowledging Constraints to Find Comprehensive Peace: The Four Cornerstones of Pacification
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index