• Since 1950, the United States government has provided foreign states with foreign military financing and related assistance amounting to over $91 billion. Military aid to Columbia since 1988 totals to nearly $5 billion. The objective behind providing the aid is to back up weaker states against insurgent groups, drug cartels and other armed, non-state actors. It has come to the attention of researchers though that the money believed to be financing the state is actually funding the groups that the aid is sent to suppress.
Description of Behavior Over Time:
• The results of the studies suggest that foreign aid may strengthen armed, non-state actors in an environment where there are ties between the government military and these other groups. In Columbia, there is a three-sided conflict among communist guerillas, the government and right-wing paramilitary groups. Paramilitaries tend to work informally with the government in countering the guerilla. The current insurgency includes the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Columbia and the National Liberation Army. Both of the groups mentioned have a stated goal to overthrow the government, but also claim to represent the poor by supporting policies such as land redistribution.
• Due to Columbia being one of the world’s largest producers of cocaine, the country is a major recipient of aid in an effort to combat the War on Drugs. One characteristic of military aid is that it is disbursed to particular military brigades however; links have been established between the Columbian military and paramilitaries. Paramilitaries depend heavily on the production and distribution of drugs which is precisely why aid is going to the country to begin with.
Goals and Objectives:
• The goal of this study is to develop a model that helps policy makers and U.S. military officials to better understand the effects of various dynamic feedback processes and delays involved with foreign military aid and specifically in countries like Columbia. This study focuses on organization factors between the government and paramilitary organizations and those organizations impacts on the stability and violence in the country. We will use a time window from 1988 through 2010 as a basis for exploring the impact of these factors.
Questions:
• What role do the organizational dynamics (links between government and paramilitary organizations) play within the country of Columbia?
• Why do these groups work together and is this a trend that can somehow be stopped? How?
• What implications does this have for the existing policies? Taking away aid entirely? Reallocating aid?
