중남미

United States policy in Colombia has undergone significant changes since the adoption of the Plan Colombia by the Clinton administration. But the “war on drugs” has failed to reduce the production, trafficking, and consumption of illicit substances. In all these areas Washington's action may actually have made an already grave situation worse. The production of coca leaves increased and the fields crossed the neighboring borders destabilizing the regional security. Human rights abuses also increased with militarization of the drug war among guerrilla forces, paramilitary groups, and Colombian army. Central government's penetration also nearly broke down in remote towns near the southern and oriental part of the country. The paper tries to explore the reason why the Plan Colombia and its approach has failed. The world-view that has shaped United States' twin war on drugs and terrorism looks too narrow to handle the complex problems Colombia faces. National security, defined exclusively in military terms, has taken precedence over equally significant political, economic, and social considerations. United States policy will continue to be ill equipped to assist Colombia in addressing the root causes of its current crisis until the over-securitized realist perspective undergoes significant changes. A more enlightened public policy mix would focus less on the security problem itself and more on the causes of violent drug production in Colombia and also on the causes of drug consumption in the United States.