With more than 140 vital moments that influenced the relationship between Colombia and the United States and six research articles about the early years of the relation, the separation of Panama, defense and cooperation issues, Plan Colombia, the commercial relations and the role of soft diplomacy through exchanges in culture and society, History of a special relationship is a detailed, illustrated, printed and digital book that highlights shared values and connections between the two countries.
The events are described by year and date in a unique timeline with historic pictures that makes this publication a non-conventional book.
Professors Stephen Randall and Fernando Cepeda provided critical information, sources and knowledge for the selection and curation of the historic events.
Randall is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Calgary, who moved to Colombia in 1969 with his wife that at the time had an ICETEX scholarship to study at the Caro y Cuervo Institute. He fell in love with our country and ended up writing two very important books about Colombia and the United States. One published in the 90s: A comprehensive and detailed study on the relation of Colombia and the United States starting in 1820s’, called Aliados y Distantes, and then in 2017 wrote another, Frente a la Estrella Polar, to study the bilateral relation from 1974 until 2015.
Fernando Cepeda, a Colombian political scientist, professor, and diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations and to the Organization of American States, has been a professor for many years and have taught to many Colombian diplomats. He has experienced firsthand some of the events described in the book.
The academics generously shared their knowledge and experience, to check data and expand resources.
Professor David Spencer, of the National Defense Studies at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, and Jose Luis Ramirez advisor to the Secretary -General of the Organization of American States, OAS also supported the editorial process.
Experienced journalists and diplomats gathered information on each of the subjects that were then developed and transformed in to easy to read, journalistic type of chronicles.
Ambassador of Colombia to the United States, Juan Carlos Pinzon himself and his team read and checked not once, but many times each of the events described in the book as well as the articles.
The pictures and illustrations were carefully selected looking into the Colombian archives, the Library of Congress and the National Archives of the United States, media outlets, President’s libraries, and private archives among others.
Punto y Aparte, the publishing company that made the book come true, specializes in out of the box projects like this one. Its team of editors, translators, historians, and designers validated, edited, checked and designed the 180 pages that constitutes the publication.
In the document, the history is the protagonist. Each of the events explained was meticulously examined, revised and edited to make sure to include events that have shaped the diplomatic relationship.
The digital version of the “History of a Special Relationship, Colombia and the United States 200 years” will be available at the end of June, beginning of July 2022 so anybody interested in learning about the intertwined history of these two countries have another tool to discover and gather information.
The content is in English and Spanish and it is the first academic, didactic and artistic effort that compiles two hundred years of bilateral diplomatic history