Teo Ballve - The Frontier Effect: State Formation and Violence in Colombia

As a bundle of debts both personal and professional, this book is a perfect example of how any finished product inevitably conceals the vast web of social relationships that actually made it possible. For starters, I will be forever grateful for the privilege of having worked with such a brilliant and generous cast of mentors at the University of California, Berkeley that have guided this project since its infancy. Michael Watts is simply a phenomenon and will always remain an inspiration. Gillian Hart had a profound impact on my understanding of praxis and scholarship. Donald Moore stimulated and refined my thinking through hours upon hours of conversation. Nancy Pelusoand who better?introduced me to political ecology. At Berkeley I was also sustained by the friendship and comradery, intellectual and otherwise, of Erin Collins, John Elrick, Anthony Fontes, Zoe Friedman-Cohen, Gustavo Oliveira, Shaina Potts, and Alberto Velzquez. I am thankful to have found an equally supportive community of colleagues within the Peace & Conflict Studies Program and the Department of Geography at Colgate University.

My sincere thanks are owed to the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The SSRCs International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) and the Drugs, Security, and Democracy Fellowship (DSD) provided me with the precious opportunity of full immersion into the research for this book from 2012 to 2013. Administered alongside the Universidad de Los Andes in cooperation with funds from the Open Society Foundations and Canadas International Development Research Centre, the DSD program is a paragon of what an intellectual community can and should be.

A 2010 summer fellowship from the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley funded what turned out to be some of the most productive months of fieldwork. A mini-grant in 2013 from the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies gave a boost to the final stages of fieldwork. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation afforded another immersive luxury: a year of generous financial support to simply write. A grant cofunded by Fulbright Colombia and the Colombian Institute for Education and Technical Studies Abroad (ICETEX) along with a Picker Fellowship from Colgate University floated the final stages of writing.

During my research Verdad Abierta, the premier source of analysis, reporting, and documentation on Colombias armed conflict, was a tremendous source of support. I owe special thanks to Csar Molinares, Mara Teresa Ronderos, and especially Juan Diego Restrepo. In Medelln and Urab my fieldwork received a helping hand from Csar Acosta and his staff at the Unidad de Restitucin de Tierras in Apartad, Mario Agudelo, Cocinero, Fiscala de Justicia y Paz in Medelln (Despacho 48), Forjando Futuros, Carlos Paez of Tierra y Vida, and many others who asked to remain anonymous.

Throughout the writing process many fellow colombianlogos read portions of the text and provided crucial feedback that helped sharpen both my arguments and my prose: Julio Arias, Alex Fattal, Meghan Morris, Diana Ojeda, Eduardo Restrepo, Winifred Tate, Austin Zeiderman, and especially Kimberly Theidon. The text also benefited from the supportive critiques of two anonymous reviewers. Over the years the participants of many conferences and workshopstoo many to namegave valuable feedback. The editors of the Cornell Series on Land, Wendy Wolford, Nancy Peluso, and Michael Goldman, gave me their enthusiastic support and sharp criticism.

This book, particularly its historical chapters, builds on the dedicated work of several scholars of Urab, and mere citation of their publications would not adequately reflect my debt to them: Clara Ins Aramburo, Fernando Botero, Clara Ins Garca, Carlos Ortz Sarmiento, James Parsons, Claudia Steiner, Andrs Surez, William Ramrez Tobn, Maria Teresa Uribe, Mary Roldn, and Juan Ricardo Aparicio. Alejandro Santos, the publisher of Semana magazine, generously supplied some of the photos that appear in the book. My heartfelt thanks to all of these allies and institutions.

Above all, I am most thankful for my family. Mom and Dad, you have been unconditional sources of love and supportalways and in everything. Marcelo, Sole, and Cuti: despite our endlessly far-flung locations, you constantly prove there is at least one thing that renders geography meaningless: the bonds of siblinghood. Over the course of this project my life was enriched by two incredible miracles: Pablo and Cecilianow, seven and four years old. Your impatience with el libro gordo (the fat book, as they called it) was a welcome and life-affirming distraction.

Finally, and most important, my deepest gratitude and appreciation go to Angela Carrizosa Aparicio. Your labor is contained in every single page of this book. The burdens you have shouldered since that cross-country road trip so many years ago have been far greater than we ever anticipated. Your strength, irrepressible optimism, and undefeatable joy have made this book possible. For that, and for so many other reasons, I love you.