Exchanging Weapons for Citizenship : Colombia's Process of Reintegrating Former Combatants into Civil Society

This study analyzes Colombia's current process of reintegrating former combatants into civil society. By employing four different citizenship perspectives constructed as ideal types it is shown how issues such as participation, political influence and the relation between rights and obligations are being addressed in the Colombian reintegration program. By relating these findings to current debates on the relation between security and development in DDR research, the study aims to reconcile the hitherto rather separated but yet intimately related discourses of DDR and citizenship. The analysis of the Colombian program gives a multifaceted picture of the country’s reintegration process where several citizenship perspectives are discerned in various and sometimes overlapping ways. Beyond contributing to an enhanced understanding of the Colombian process, the study illustrates the numerous ways in which diverging citizenship perspectives may be incorporated into a wider framework of peace and state-building and the potential tensions that are discerned in different approaches to DDR