Acknowledgments for Drugs, Thugs, and Diplomats

Acknowledgments

I have incurred many debts during the years spent gestating this book, only some of which I can acknowledge here. First, I must thank those who schooled me in foreign policy advocacy while at the Washington Office on Latin America. I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to work with some of the most thoughtful, perceptive, and smart people around, including Adriana Beltran, Peter Clark, Rachel Farley, Laurie Freeman, Dave Mattingly, Rachel Neild, Eric Olson, Bill Spencer, George Vickers, and Coletta Youngers. I also thank my colleagues on the Colombia Steering Committee, especially Lisa Haaguard, Alison Giffen, and Adam Isacson, for their political insights.

I first conceptualized the project while a postdoctoral fellow in the Culture, Identity, and Politics Program at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Among the many Brown colleagues who deserve my thanks are Peter Andreas, Keith Brown, James Der Derian, Cathy Lutz, Simone Pulver, and Kay Warren. Under the auspices of the Watson Institute, I organized a workshop on the Anthropology of Foreign Policy, and I am grateful for the thoughtful contributions of the participants, especially Catherine Besteman, Keith Brown, Jason Cross, Gregory Feldman, Hugh Gusteron, Catherine Lutz, María Clemencia Ramírez, Nina Siulc, Stacey Van Der Veer, David Vine, Kay Warren, and Janine Wedel. My research benefited greatly from time spent with the document collection at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., where I was fortunate to work with Michael Evans.

In Colombia, Nancy Sánchez was my first guide in Putumayo. María Clemencia Ramírez was extremely generous with her time, contacts, and insights. I am grateful beyond words for the patience, guidance, and wisdom of the Women of the Alliance, especially Fatima, Elena, Carmen, Amanda, Ana, Yesenia, and the many others who spent hours with me.

Financial support for research in Colombia was provided by a grant from the U.S. Institute for Peace; faculty development funds from Colby College; and a postdoctoral fellowship in the Drugs, Security, and Democracy Program of the Open Society Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. During a sabbatical in Colombia, the Political Science Department of La Universidad de los Andes provided me with an institutional home.

I was fortunate to benefit from conversations and comments shared with me while presenting parts of this project at Lawrence University; Franklin and Marshall College; the International Affairs Program at the New School for Social Research; Vassar College; the Off-Centered States conference in Quito, Ecuador (sponsored by Emory University, the Carnegie Corporation, and FLASCO-Ecuador); the Cold War and Afterwards seminar of the History Department at New York University; the Human Rights in the United States conference at the University of Connecticut; the Issues in the Critical Study of Armed Forces workshop at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University; the Empire and the Americas Conference: Rethinking Solidarity workshop at the University of New Orleans; the Conference on International NGOs at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá; the Politics of Numbers workshop at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University; and at meetings of the American Anthropological Association and the Latin American Studies Association.

At Stanford University Press I greatly benefited from the graceful guidance of Michelle Lipinski; Anthropology of Policy series editors Cris Shore and Susan Wright provided thoughtful comments and much needed feedback. While this book was still in process, I benefited from the insightful comments on all or partial drafts from Jeffrey Anderson, Teo Ballvé, Chandra Bhimul, Catherine Besteman, Heath Cabot, Michael Evens, Paul Gootenberg, Britt Halverson, Jenna Hunter-Bowman, Ben Fallaw, Adam Isacson, Erica James, Ramiza Koya, Mary Beth Mills, David Nugent, María Clemencia Ramírez, Maple Razsa, David Strohl, Bill Tate, and Kimberly Theidon. I greatly appreciate all their wise counsel over the years. I also benefited from conversations with Sibylla Brodzinsky, Jessica Cattelino, Elena Florez, Daniel Garcia-Peña, Olga Gutierrez, Bridget Guarasci, Sherine Hamdy, Arlene Tickner, Alex Wilde, and Jessica Winegar. I thank Alex Fattal, Julie Chu, and Caroline Yezer for their particularly wise thoughts in the final round. All remaining errors are, of course, my own.