War of movement: The political economy of conflict escalation in Colombia, 1990–8

Dodd, O ORCID: 0009-0005-7260-5185 (2025) War of movement: The political economy of conflict escalation in Colombia, 1990–8. Review of International Studies. pp. 1990-1998. ISSN 0260-2105

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Abstract

Guided by interviews with key protagonists and extensive archival research, this article reinterprets the escalation of the Colombian armed conflict during the critical period of the 1990s. It rejects conventional characterisations of the war as an ‘internal conflict’ and challenges dominant approaches based on state weakness and economic opportunity. Instead, the article situates the FARC’s rapid expansion against the background of the international political economy, linking the conflict’s escalation to changing social relations of production. Grounded in historical materialism, and particularly drawing on the concepts of uneven and combined development, passive revolution, crisis of authority, and war of movement, the article explains how the Colombian state’s reintegration into global capitalism deepened social fragmentation, displaced subaltern populations, generated new terrains of resistance, and provoked a spreading crisis of authority that the FARC strategically exploited. It is argued that the FARC’s expansion was not a symptom of criminal degeneration but a strategic political response enabled by Colombia’s passive revolutionary transformation within the uneven and combined dynamics of global capitalism. The article contributes to broader debates in security, international political economy, global development, historical sociology, and regional studies, inviting scholars to identify the underlying but not immediately visible dynamics shaping conflict and peace.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1605 Policy and Administration; 1606 Political Science; 2203 Philosophy; International Relations; 4407 Policy and administration; 4408 Political science
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Divisions:	Humanities and Social Science
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Date of acceptance:	12 August 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	4 November 2025
Date Deposited:	04 Nov 2025 15:17
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2025 15:30
DOI or ID number:	10.1017/s0260210525101411
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27490

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