While the 2016 Peace Accords with FARC do not contain a Chapter dedicated to the reform of the Armed Forces or to the methods for securing peace by the State, the False Positives scandal and the broader consequences of the armed conflict have driven the Truth Commission to consider the role of the Armed Forces in the conflict and to recommend institutional reforms. Throughout the peacebuilding phase, the Colombian Armed Forces have been slowly reforming their institution and have made progress on a number of the focus areas identified by the Truth Commission. The epitome of this progress is Colombia's ongoing participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Building Integrity (BI) Program, which has been the anchor point in the development and growth of the NATO-Colombia relationship and partnership since 2013. This article looks at the ongoing reforms and suggests that there is an opportunity for Colombia to leverage its established, mature relationship with NATO and the BI Program, to accomplish the desired reforms in the Armed Forces. This strategy allows the government of Colombia to co-opt existing efforts for his own domestic agenda without alienating or discounting the progress that the Armed Forces have already made on their own.
Photo by Jhonny Salas Brochero