Colombia Internacional

Colomb. int. | eISSN 1900-6004 | ISSN 0121-5612

The Politicization of Colombia’s Foreign Service: Insights from a Novel Dataset of Overseas Appointments, 2000-2024

No. 124 (2025-10-15)
  • David Castrillon-Kerrigan
    Universidad Externado de Colombia (Colombia)
    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7060-3331
https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint124.2025.03

Abstract

Objective/context: This article explores the degree of politicization of Colombia’s foreign service during the period 2000-2024. Methodology: The study constructs and analyzes a dataset of 3,135 appointments to overseas posts between February 22, 2000, and August 7, 2024. The information was gathered through archival research of administrative acts under the purview of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the study period. A descriptive analysis of the dataset examines politicization across three categories of appointments: all overseas posts, ambassadorships, and posts reserved for foreign service officers. Conclusions: The findings indicate that politicization has remained the main pattern in overseas appointments throughout the period, with no consistent improvement over time. Politicization appears in different forms. We find that political appointees constituted more than half of all appointments (53.65%), an overwhelming majority of ambassadorships (80.81% or 72.44%, depending on the classification method used), and nearly half (49.18%) of all posts reserved for foreign service officers. Originality: In the Colombian context, the dataset represents a novelty in longitudinal data collection on diplomatic appointments across posts. The article provides new data-driven insights into politicization throughout the entire period and by presidential term. In the broader field of diplomatic studies, this is the first study to provide replicable information on appointments for all personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, extending previous research that only focused on ambassadorships.

Keywords: bureaucratic politics, clientelism, Colombian foreign policy, diplomatic politicization, foreign service

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