The frontier effect : state formation and violence in Colombia /

Ballvé (Colgate Univ.), an academic, a former journalist, and an editor of the NACLA Report on the Americas, here examines the Urabá region in northwestern Colombia and the competing claims of rival factions in "the role of would-be state builders" during more than half a century of violence in the area. Groups from across the political spectrum attempt to project their view of the state in a region where the state government is supposedly absent, yielding a situation of "generative political influence," which the author labels the "frontier effect." A well-written, multidisciplinary work, this study provides an engaging academic analysis for the conflict in Urabá (covered previously by Ballvé during his career as a reporter), which continues to sputter on despite the fact that the president of Colombia has decreed the national conflict over. Creatively exploring the dynamics of this all-too-human situation, this volume is recommended for academic libraries with strong Latin American holdings. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --James A. Rhodes, emeritus, Luther College