Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Objective/context: This article reevaluates Colombia’s place in Latin American international history by challenging what we call the López–Drekonja thesis, which portrays the country as passive or as an “Andean Tibet.” It argues that, between 1950 and 1962, Colombia adopted a middlepowermanship role conception that helps explain its selective activism in international peace and security. Methodology: Using a structured, focused comparison (George and Bennett, 2004), the study integrates role theory (Holsti, 1970; Harnisch, 2011) with middle power scholarship. Two cases—Colombia’s participation in the Korean War and its diplomatic leadership in Cuba’s expulsion from the Organization of American States (OAS)—trace how three interrelated motivations (status-seeking, self-interest, and moralism/idealism) shaped role conception and performance. Conclusions: Both cases reveal agency despite structural constraints. In Korea, self-interest predominated, followed by moralism/idealism and status-seeking; in the “Cuban question,” the order was self-interest > status-seeking > moralism/idealism. Colombia pursued niche diplomacy and legalist multilateralism to punch above its weight, complicating materialist and dependency readings that assume automatic subordination to the United States. Originality: The article proposes a middlepowermanship role conception for a non-canonical Latin American case, linking identity and behavior without requiring explicit self-labeling as a “middle power.” It offers a theoretical–historical reinterpretation of a neglected period in Colombian foreign policy and extends role theory’s analytical scope to peripheral contexts.
Source: Colombia Internacional
Author: Nicolas Alberto Mejia Riaño
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7160164810