The Mediation in Colombia project is designed to generate discussion about Colombia’s past efforts to resolve its longstanding internal armed conflict.

Colombia Network of Women Mediators
Colombia Network of Women Mediators

The goals of the project are to:

  • Draw lessons from Colombia’s past negotiating experiences to assist in future peace talks
  • Contribute to the systematization of materials from previous peace initiatives in Colombia
  • Contribute to a peaceful settlement with Colombia’s remaining guerrilla groups, especially the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN)
  • Explore ways that international mediation experiences that might be relevant for Colombia.

Background

In the last 25 years, several governments in Colombia have engaged in peace talks that resulted in intermittent or partial successes, including the disarmament of at least five guerrilla groups or factions thereof. These experiences, as well as peace initiatives with each of the two major guerrilla groups— the FARC and the ELN -- provide a rich legacy of lessons yet to be mined.  By analyzing the shortcomings and successes of past peace initiatives as well as the role of civil society actors and the international community in mediation, USIP hopes to generate new thinking on how to reach agreements on the key issues that have proved to be stumbling blocks to peace in the past. 
Activities

This project involves identifying, interviewing, convening, and commissioning papers from current and former mediators, facilitators, and civil society guarantors of the peace processes in Colombia and expert observers who study the Colombian conflict. The activities are designed to encourage participants to reflect on past peace initiatives, and to develop resources that might be useful when future opportunities for peace talks emerge. 
USIP activities this year have included:

  • Co-sponsorship of a 2-day conference hosted by the Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP) on November 4-5, 2010 in Bogotá, Colombia
    Read the program agenda | Read the conference communiqué (in Spanish)
  • Sponsorship of an academic panel on “Lessons from Past Peace Processes in Colombia,” at the Latin American Studies Association meetings (Rio de Janeiro, June 2009). Panelists included Mauricio García-Durán, Alvaro Villarraga, Marc Chernick, León Valencia and Virginia M. Bouvier (chair and organizer).
  • Roundtable Discussion on “Mediation in Colombia” at the Latin American Studies Association meetings in Toronto, Canada (October 2010) with Marc Chernick, Alberto Valencia, Elvira Sanchez-Blake, and Virginia M. Bouvier (chair and organizer). 
  • Sponsorship of a panel discussion on “Challenges to International Mediation” at the International Studies Association meetings in Montreal, Canada (March 16, 2011). Discussants included USIP Senior Program Officer Virginia M. Bouvier, USIP Senior Fellow Cecile Aptel, and Stine Lehmann-Larsen from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

USIP has been spearheading a collaborative research project with the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, the Colombian Jesuit Research Institute (CINEP), and the Latin American Studies Center at Georgetown University and others to analyze past peace processes and their impact on prospects for a future political solution to the conflict in Colombia. On October 15, 2012, the consortium released a new document, “Lessons for Colombia’s Peace Talks in Oslo and Havana,” published in Spanish as “Lecciones para los diálogos en Oslo y La Habana.”

Learn More

Related Publications

Q&A: Colombia’s President Santos in Washington

Q&A: Colombia’s President Santos in Washington

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos meets President Barack Obama on Feb. 4 in Washington to commemorate the 15th anniversary of “Plan Colombia,” a U.S.-led effort that has provided about $10 billion to help the South American country’s security forces fight leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers. Virginia Bouvier, a senior advisor for peace processes at the U.S. Institute of Peace, who has led the Institute’s work on Colombia for the past decade, talks about Santos’s visit and the fast-mo...

Type: Analysis

Mediation, Negotiation & DialoguePeace Processes

Q&A: Colombia, Guerrillas Reach Accord on Rights for Victims of War

Q&A: Colombia, Guerrillas Reach Accord on Rights for Victims of War

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Making a peace deal that accommodates the needs of the millions of civilians hurt by Colombia’s 50-year-old conflict has challenged negotiators since talks between the government and the nation’s largest guerrilla group began three years ago. This week, negotiators announced an agreement on victims, completing the fourth item on a six-point agenda that’s aimed at ending hostilities. USIP’s Virginia Bouvier, who was in Havana for the declaration on victims, said the latest accord is another hi...

Type: Analysis

Peace ProcessesHuman RightsMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

View All

Latest Publications

U.S. Concerns Over ‘Axis of Authoritarianism’ Cloud Final Biden-Xi Meeting

U.S. Concerns Over ‘Axis of Authoritarianism’ Cloud Final Biden-Xi Meeting

Thursday, November 21, 2024

With President Joe Biden’s presidential term ending in a few weeks, expectations for his final meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping were modest, especially considering the broader frictions in U.S.-China relations. Biden and Xi met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru on November 16. The meeting highlighted the importance of maintaining open communications channels to manage the two powers’ many differences.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

China’s Global Security Initiative Takes Shape in Southeast and Central Asia

China’s Global Security Initiative Takes Shape in Southeast and Central Asia

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Since Chinese leader Xi Jinping launched the Global Security Initiative (GSI) in April 2022, it has been used in China’s efforts to expand its international security role and reshape global order. Drawing on field research and discussions with regional policymakers and experts, this report looks at Beijing’s progress in implementing and operationalizing the GSI in the priority regions of mainland Southeast Asia and Central Asia, and it examines key policy implications, explaining why the initiative warrants greater attention on the part of the US policy community.

Type: Special Report

Global Policy

A Delicate Balance: Promoting Nuclear Energy While Preventing Proliferation

A Delicate Balance: Promoting Nuclear Energy While Preventing Proliferation

Thursday, November 21, 2024

As global energy demands intensify and the urgency of addressing climate shocks mounts, the role of nuclear energy has come to the forefront of discussions for governments, businesses and those concerned about sustainable development. Just last week, the Biden administration released a plan to triple U.S. nuclear capacity by 2050. While nuclear energy promises efficiency gains and significant emissions reductions, public opinion remains divided about the tradeoffs of increased investment, the safety risks and the implications for international security. This puts the U.S. at a crossroads as it tries to navigate its role in a world with new demands for nuclear energy and heightened risks of conflict between nuclear-armed states. Such risks were highlighted this week when Russia lowered its nuclear threshold in response to new U.S. authorizations for Ukraine to use long-range weapons.

Type: Analysis

EnvironmentGlobal Policy

Iraq’s Lingering ISIS Challenge and the Role of Dialogue in Return and Reintegration

Iraq’s Lingering ISIS Challenge and the Role of Dialogue in Return and Reintegration

Thursday, November 21, 2024

With conflicts raging in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan, concerns related to the extremist group ISIS may seem overtaken by these other conflicts. After all, Iraq declared the group’s military defeat in 2017 after the territory held by the extremists was retaken by Iraqi government forces in partnership with the United States. Yet just over a month ago, U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted a joint military raid against the group, killing nine senior ISIS leaders who were hiding in the rugged Hamrin Mountains in northern Iraq. This raid comes off the heels of the UK’s domestic intelligence chief stating that the group is positioning itself as a resurgent threat. Indeed, ISIS has conducted over 150 attacks so far this year in Iraq and Syria, more than those claimed by the group in 2023.

Type: Analysis

ReconciliationViolent Extremism

Four Questions that Could Determine Haiti’s Future

Four Questions that Could Determine Haiti’s Future

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Much has happened in Haiti over the past two weeks — none of it is reassuring. The Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) fired Prime Minister Garry Conille on November 10, after only six months in office. Moments before an interim prime minister was sworn in the next day, a U.S. commercial airliner was struck by gunfire, forcing a pause in flights to Haiti’s international airport. These developments underscore the reality facing Haiti's interim government and the immense challenges it faces in achieving a transition by February 2026, as outlined in an April 3, 2024 agreement. Given this dysfunction, Haitians and their international partners are rightly concerned that the country’s evolving political and security crisis will only further deepen.

Type: Analysis

Fragility & Resilience

View All Publications