Publication

This paper explores the factors that facilitated the November 2016 peace agreement between the FARC and Colombian government, and the stumbling blocks that made the negotiating process so difficult. In the first case, the deal’s success was ultimately attributable to 1) limiting the agenda to just six issues; 2) shifting the peace talks to Cuba, which provided the disputants with a distant and controlled environment to work in; and 3) creating a shared belief that the negotiations were “for Colombians, by Colombians,” which enabled the country’s government to assume a more 'strategic' approach towards the participation of external actors.