“…Both countries were reluctant to create a military alliance or regional mechanism of collective defense. Colombia’s Álvaro Uribe Vélez, a charismatic and powerful president, tried to defend his country’s relationship with the United States, following the principle of Respice Polum, or looking to the north (González Parias, Mesa Bedoya, & Londoño Ossa, ; Tickner & Morales, ), and to fight the insurgency ferociously, avoiding commitments that he considered superficial and inconvenient (Uribe Vélez, personal communication, August 21, 2017). With Juan Manuel Santos taking office in August 2010, the transition from the doctrine of “democratic security” to one of “democratic peace” began, with subsequent variations toward a peace process (Wills‐Otero & Benito, ).…”