Colombia and Extra-Hemispheric Powers: the Case of Colombo-Russian Relations

Abstract

In Latin America, the end of the Cold War was marked by the beginning of the important changes, including the growing incidence of extra-hemispheric powers like Russia. However, the academia has been rather slow in building new knowledge on the subject. One reason behind this scarcity is the difficulties that arise when attempting to examine various aspects of the Colombian post-Cold War foreign policy towards Russia using the so-called mainstream approaches. This article aims to narrow the gap by introducing a framework of analysis that is based on the role theory and is used to examine the case of the Colombo-Russian relations during the government of Ernesto Samper Pizano (1994-1998). The author argues that the application of the role theory to the foreign policy analysis opens new possibilities for studying Colombian relations with countries from outside the Americas.