Research

International Relations, Resistance, Latin America

I study how international policies and global forces shape peacebuilding, repression, and social resistance in Latin America, with a focus on former rebels’ transitions to nonviolent activism and community responses to international drug control. Using primarily qualitative, fieldwork-based methods, my research shows how collective reintegration and local resistance can transform political struggle, advance peace and social justice, and generate policy-relevant insights. My research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals. Click the links below to explore my works.

Publications

Osorio, J. and S. Brewer-Osorio. 2025. “Demand and Supply of Criminal Governance in Central America and Mexico.” American Political Science Review. Published online: 1–18.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2025. “Collective Reintegration and Gender Relations Among Ex-Combatants: Lessons from Colombia.” International Peacekeeping. 1–30.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2025. “The Andean Cocaine Trade: Global Reach and Local Impacts.” In Sebastián A. Cutrona and Jonathan D. Rosen (eds.), Cocaine: The Global Reach of the World’s Most Lucrative Illicit Drug. University of New Mexico Press.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2024. “MAS Relations with Social Movements: The Yungas Cocaleros and the 2019 Crisis.” Bolivian Studies Journal 30: 127–158.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2024. “From Spoilers to Builders: Collective Reintegration, Leadership, and Peace in Colombia.” Conflict, Security & Development 24(2): 79–110.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2021. “Turning Over a New Leaf: A Subnational Analysis of ‘Coca Yes, Cocaine No’ in Bolivia.” Journal of Latin American Studies 53(2).

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2021. “The Coca Leaf in Bolivian History.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. Oxford University Press.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2020. “Uniting the Opposition: Reform, Repression, and the Rise of the Cocaleros in Bolivia.” The Latin Americanist 64(3): 257–279.

Osorio, J., S. Brewer-Osorio, M. Mohamed, and V. Pavón. 2019. “Mapping Violent Presence of Armed Actors in Colombia.” Advances in Cartography and Geoscience 1: 16.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2019. “Mexico’s Democratic Consolidation.” In Paulette Kurzer, Comparative Governance: Political Structure and Diversity Across the Globe, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2018. “Narcotization as Security Dilemma: The FARC and the Drug Trade in Colombia.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 41(8): 638–659.

Brewer-Osorio, S. 2012. “A Tale of Two Paramilitaries: The Political Economy of Local Paramilitary Rule in the Magdalena Medio, Colombia.” The Latin Americanist Annals 56(1): 36–56.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for the generous support that makes my research possible. My work has been funded by fellowships from the Fulbright Scholars Program in Colombia and the University of Arizona Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, as well as grants from the International Peace Research Association Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Open Society Foundations.