Democracy and Displacement in Colombia's Civil War is one of few books available in English to provide an overview of the Colombian civil war and drug war. Abbey Steele draws on her own original field research as well as on Colombian scholars' work in Spanish to provide an expansive view of the country's political conflicts. Steele shows how political reforms in the context of Colombia's ongoing civil war produced unexpected, dramatic consequences: democratic elections revealed Colombian citizens' political loyalties and allowed counterinsurgent armed groups to implement political cleansing against civilians perceived as loyal to insurgents.

Combining evidence collected from remote archives, more than two hundred interviews, and quantitative data from the government's displacement registry, Steele connects Colombia's political development and the course of its civil war to purposeful displacement. By introducing the concepts of collective targeting and political cleansing, Steele extends what we already know about patterns of ethnic cleansing to cases where expulsion of civilians from their communities is based on nonethnic traits.

About the Author

Abbey Steele is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam.

Reviews

Democracy and Displacement in Colombia's Civil War could be hastily summarized as well-written, detailed, and carefully crafted research on Colombia's civil war and the consequences for internal displacement. However, Steele's work far exceeds mere navel-gazing at the bloody and fascinating politics of Colombia, offering a richness and depth that should interest not only scholars of contentious politics but the policy makers tasked with taking action.

* The Journal of Politics *

Steele examines the relationship between elections and displacement in Colombia. She expertly draws together her fieldwork in Apartado with quantitative study of election data across Colombia. This work will become essential reading for academics and practitioners interested in Colombia or the broader thematic areas of irregular warfare and insurgency, forced migration, and conflict and democratization.

* Choice *

Drawing on extensive archival work and interviews, Abbey Steele's book offers an engaging account of the history and evolution of the Colombian civil war and develops a compelling theory of the variation in civilian displacement within it. This impressive contribution convincingly and disturbingly shows how elections introduced to engender peace can be turned into tools of war.

* Journal of Peace Research *

Steele's study is rigorous, well argued and convincingly presented. The author undertakes a battery of statistical tests against a great deal of data, including many sources she assembled herself. She complements this with qualitative fieldwork and historical contextualization. The book speaks to central concerns of scholarship and practice regarding displacement caused by conflict, as well as the challenges of building peace through democratic engagement. It is destined to be obligatory reading for those wanting to understand the effects of the Colombian conflict, and civil conflict and displacement more generally.

* International Affairs *

Drawing on her field research in Colombia, Steele examines the country's civil and drug wars, arguing that political reforms had the unintended result of allowing paramilitary groups to identify citizens who supported insurgents and to target them for 'political cleansing', meaning their expulsion from their communities.

* Survival: Global politics and strategy *

Her book puts politics back into the equation and provides a thoughtful, clear, and highly innovative reflection on the relationship between democracy and violence against civilians during civil wars.

* Perspectives on Politics *

Steele's book focuses on forced displacement during the civil war in Colombia.... The most visible argument in Steele's book is the parsimonious one that links elections to the identification and displacement of disloyal individuals. However, upon careful reading, the book offers a far more nuanced and convincing causal story. Steele not only assembles and evaluates quantitative evidence, but also describes how exactly elections ultimately restarted the war and led to widespread displacement.

* Journal of Global Security Studies *

Democracy and Displacement is a major step forward in understanding the interactions between combatants and civilians during war... Steele writes with notable compassion for her subjects, weaving stories from her fieldwork into the narrative. The result is a book that is both persuasive and absorbing.

* Latin American Research Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501713736
Author Abbey Steele
Format Hardback
Page Count 264
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm