What counts as an “article” in this archive
FASOC content often mixes classic peer-style research articles with policy essays, interviews, documentary extracts, and issue editorials. For an archive, that’s a feature, not a bug: it lets you track how security debates moved from “institutional questions” (budgets, doctrine, oversight) into “operational questions” (policing, crime, peace processes, terrorism, and regional security cooperation).
- Research articles: argument + evidence (case studies, comparative work, historical analysis).
- Policy analysis: problem framing + options (often written for decision-makers and practitioners).
- Interviews / documents: primary material useful for citation (official extracts, conversations with key actors).
- Special editions: translated or thematic selections (e.g., English-language PDFs in later years).
Topic taxonomy (use these as tags)
A good taxonomy is boring on purpose. It should mirror the phrases people actually search, and it should stay stable across years. Recommended tags:
- civil–military relations
- democratic oversight & accountability
- defence policy & strategy
- security sector reform
- militarized policing
- organized crime & internal security
- peace negotiations & armed conflict
- regional security & hemispheric agenda
- arms control & disarmament
- terrorism & strategic shocks
Keep tags tight. Ten precise tags beat fifty vague ones every time.
Selected article records (examples you can copy)
Peace processes and armed conflict
- “Colombia: una negociación compleja, pero terrenal”
Author: Joaquín Villalobos (2000)
Issue: Año 15, Nº 3 (Julio–Septiembre 2000)
Tags: peace negotiations; armed conflict; Colombia; conflict resolution
Why it matters: a grounded reading of negotiation dynamics, trade-offs, and the “real-world constraints” that shape outcomes. Useful as a primary reference when comparing Latin American peace processes across decades.
Hemispheric security agenda
- “Estados Unidos y el hemisferio occidental: Los temas de la Agenda de Seguridad”
Author: Isabel Jaramillo (2000)
Issue: Año 15, Nº 3 (2000)
Tags: US–Latin America; hemispheric security; foreign policy; security agenda
Why it matters: captures how “agenda-setting” works in practice: what issues rise, who defines them, and how priorities travel across institutions. Strong for framing sections in theses and policy memos.
Security concepts in globalization
- “El debate sobre la seguridad en la globalización”
Author: Mariano Aguirre (2000)
Issue: cited in FASOC/FLACSO context (2000)
Tags: globalization; security concepts; policy debate; strategic discourse
Why it matters: helps map the shift from state-centric security language to broader frames (societal/human security, transnational threats). Best used as a conceptual bridge between older strategic studies and newer governance-focused security literature.
Primary documents / documentary extracts
- “Plan Colombia (extracto): Plan para la paz, la prosperidad y el fortalecimiento del Estado”
Author: documentary extract published in FASOC context (2000)
Issue: Año 15, Nº 3 (Julio–Septiembre 2000)
Tags: Plan Colombia; security policy; state capacity; primary document
Why it matters: not a “take” - a citation-friendly document extract. Useful when you need to quote the official framing of objectives and justify how a policy package was publicly presented.
Security sector reform and militarized policing (English PDFs)
-
“Police force reform and military participation against delinquency”
Authors: Lucía Dammert; John Bailey (2006)
Format: English PDF (translated publication)
Tags: police reform; militarized policing; public security; Latin America
PDF: Download (PDF)
Why it matters: a clean entry point into the “police vs military” boundary problem. Strong for literature reviews because it connects reform constraints to real institutional incentives. -
“Reflections upon homosexuality in the armed forces”
Author: Claudio Ortiz Lazo (2006)
Format: English PDF (translated publication)
Tags: military sociology; personnel policy; inclusion; comparative analysis
PDF: Download (PDF)
Why it matters: shows how “institutional culture” and personnel policy debates become operational: recruitment, cohesion arguments, legal framing, and comparative lessons across armed forces.
How to write a good archive entry (and avoid garbage SEO)
Don’t stuff keywords. Do structured metadata: exact title, author(s), year, issue, and 3–6 tight tags. Then write a 2–4 sentence summary that states: (1) the problem, (2) the claim, (3) the evidence type. If you can’t identify those three, your summary is fluff and it will mislead users.
If a text is a documentary extract or interview, say so explicitly. Mixing “analysis” with “primary material” is how archives become unreliable.