The fatal attraction of civil war economies: foreign direct investment and political violence. A case study of Colombia

Civil war acutely inhibits economic growth, according to a prominent set of civil war literature. However, recent scholarship observes that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), considered a central vehicle of growth, is entering countries with internal armed conflicts unabated. Furthermore, some civil war economies exhibit substantial increases in FDI during conflict. According to this scholarship, FDI enters conflict zones in spite of violence. This article contrastingly adopts a critical framework acknowledging the often violent characteristics of globalised capitalism. By analysing Colombia’s oil industry (the country’s largest sector of FDI), this article suggests that civil war violence can create conditions that facilitate FDI inflows. More specifically, this article posits that violence perpetrated by armed groups sympathetic to the interests of the oil sector – namely, the public armed forces and right-wing paramilitaries – have facilitated FDI in Colombia’s oil sector. In particular, processes of forced displacement and violence against civilian groups have served to protect economically important infrastructure and have acquired land for oil exploration. Moreover, civilian groups deemed inimical to oil interests have been violently targeted. By using disaggregate-level data on the conflict in Arauca, an important oil producing region of Colombia, this case study indicates that intensifying levels of civil war violence in areas of economic interest are followed by increases in oil production, exploration and investment

Profiles in Honduras Courage and Resilience: A Readers’ Theatre (2015-11-12)

Royal D. Alworth, Jr. Institute for International Studie

Invisible Cities: Indigenous Resistance in Urban Colombia (2020-04-22)

April 22, 2020; 11:00 am - 12:15 pm; via ZOOMFeaturing Maria Violet Medina Quiscue, Coordinator of the Committee of Indigenous Peoples Victims of the Armed Conflict in Bogota; The speaker, Maria Violet Medina Quiscue, is General Coordinator for the Mesa de Pueblos Indigenas Victimas del Conflicto Armado en Bogotá (Committee of Indigenous Peoples Victims of the Armed Conflict in Bogota), a grassroots organization representing 16 Indigenous groups currently living in conditions of forced displacement in the city of Bogota, Colombia. The committee works to protect the rights of Indigenous people affected by the Colombian armed conflict through preservation of traditional education, healthcare, psycho-social support and human rights advocacy at the national and international level.Cosponsored by the UMD Alworth Institute, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Department of World Languages & Cultures, and Witness for Peac