Office: ICC 674A
Office Hours: M 2-4
Telephone: (202) 687-6026
Fax: (202) 687-5858
E-mail: chernicm@georgetown.edu
Areas of Specialization: Comparative Politics, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, Drug-trafficking, Latin America, and the Andean Region
Vitae (pdf)

MARC CHERNICK teaches in the Department of Government and the Center for Latin American Studies. He previously taught and served as Acting Director of the Latin American Studies program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and earlier as the Assistant Director of the Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University. He also worked for several years as a professor at the University of Los Andes and the National University of Colombia, both in Bogotá, and was a Visiting Professor/ Researcher at FLACSO-Ecuador in Quito and the Institute of Peruvian Studies in Lima. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, the U.S. Department of State and the government of Switzerland on projects to promote peace and conflict resolution in Colombia, and has been an advisor to USAID on issues of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Peru and on related issues in Zambia and Nigeria.

Currently he is working with a team of international scholars on a cross-regional research project on insurgent groups and paths to settlement of internal armed conflicts sponsored by the Norwegian Government and the Social Science Research Council contributing research on the FARC guerrillas of Colombia and the Shining Path of Peru. He has written widely on drug trafficking, political violence, and negotiated settlement to internal armed conflicts and has recently completed a book on peace negotiations and the armed conflict in Colombia (2005), and is the editor and co-author of another study for the United Nations Development Program on Conflict Prevention and Early Warning in Latin America, focusing on the case of Colombia (2005).

Course Schedule

Spring 2005:
GOVT 439 Latin American Government and Politics (Syllabus)
This course focuses on the key literature in political science that has shaped the understanding of Latin American politics in the past, as well as the principal issues that are defining the current analysis of the region. The course examines the literature on modernization and dependency theories, regime breakdown, the military in politics, and the difficult transitions to democracy, as well as many of the newer issues in Latin American politics, including new social movements, the rise of drug trafficking, transnational advocacy networks, human rights and environmental politics, the transformation of political parties, the rule of law, poverty and the politics of globalization. Since the class will be organized around issues and theoretical approaches, the student should have a background in contemporary Latin American history or at least be familiar with political processes and events in the major Latin American countries.

GOVT 448 Colombia: Violence and Politics (Syllabus)
This class will give an in-depth analysis of Colombian politics in the 20th century with a special focus on political conflict, institutional change, and sources of political violence in the second half of the century. It will examine the rise of the contemporary guerrilla and paramilitary movements, 25 years of inconclusive and failed peace negotiations, drug trafficking, and relations with the international community at key historical junctures, including the US War on Drugs, Plan Colombia and the rise of a new focus: the War on Terrorism. A reading knowledge of Spanish is required, as many of the required texts and articles come from Colombia.

GOVT 575 Negotiations and Peace Processes in Latin America (Syllabus)
This seminar examined internal conflicts and attempts at negotiated settlements in Central America and the Andean region with comparative reference to negotiations and peace processes in other parts of the world. It approaches the study of peace processes from three related perspectives: 1) theoretically, using some of the best recent literature derived from the peace processes of the last two decades; 2) through an in-depth examination of specific Latin American cases -- principally Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru; and 3) through an analysis of
specific issues incorporating experiences from Latin America and other international cases, such as Truth and Justice Commissions (South Africa and Guatemala), and the involvement of outside actors such as the United Nations and World Bank (El Salvador, Guatemala and Colombia). During the final third of the semester, students will simulate actual negotiations in one of the countries, playing the role of a government representative, guerrilla leader, international mediator, civil society leader or other actor in one of the peace processes being studied.

Recently Taught Courses

Fall 2004:
 GOVT 398 Democracy and Social Change in the Andean Region (Syllabus)
The Andean region -- for the purposes of this course comprising principally the countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (though there will be comparative analyses with Venezuela) -- is perhaps the most politically as well as conceptually interesting area of Latin America. It is also a region undergoing profound social transformation, political instability and crisis. Some have called the region the "arc of crisis" in the Andes. This course, then, provides an immersion into the political, economic and social dynamics of each of these countries. It addresses such issues as the reconstruction of indigenous identity, institutional instability, populism and neo-populism, continued guerrilla insurgency in Colombia and the search for peace, illegal commodity export booms in coca and cocaine, and other issues which today are shaping the political arena of these Andean nations in the post-cold war world. A reading knowledge of Spanish is required, as some of the best literature is not available in English.

GOVT 562/LASP 503 Advanced Seminar on Latin American Government and Politics
Advanced seminar for MA and doctoral students covering similar issues as Govt 439 (Spring 2005) but taught in a seminar format and in greater theoretical depth.