EDITORIAL NOTE

A main concern of the Editorial and Scientific Committees of this Journal has been the publishing of articles of high scientific quality. In this occasion, there has been an overflow, because all of the articles are the result of investigations carried out in a number of Investigation Centers of this country and abroad. This issue specially supports the idea to continue consolidating this Journal as a source for research and information, thus improving its own standards. Consequently, continuing the tradition that characterizes us, the articles are grouped in thematic order.

International Relations, includes three articles: the first one, Evolution of the system of control and financing of Terrorism, by Fabio Sanchez Cabarcas. The author analyzes the mechanisms that the system of States has presented and implemented to control the financing of the terrorism, in addition to exposing the difficulties that exist in controlling it, due to its the nature. In spite of the huge efforts that have been made, concludes that a broader international cooperation is required, that contributes to the consolidation of an international system to control the financing of terrorism, with the participation of other actors of the international system, different from the traditional ones. In the second article, An approximation to the legal perspective of the decisions of the Andean Parliament in the legal codes of the States, by Carolina Blanco, integration is the trend that is encouraged today in state relations to attain established goals, therefore professor Blanco examines the Andean scenario and points out how it can be developed in the region. She accentuates the Andean Parliament as the agency that can help comply with the wanted integration, but for the project to come through, nationalism, among other factors, must be overcome regarding the adoption of the decisions of the Andean Parliament, because in spite of the fact that they have binding character, they are not accepted and that complicates significant advance in the process. Nevertheless, this bottleneck can be overcome within the CAN environment, if co-decision attributes are given to the Andean Parliament regarding member regulations. In the third article, Decentralized International Cooperation for public departmental and municipal administrations in Colombia, by Jahir Alexander Gutierrez Ossa; this professor recognizes how decentralized international cooperation would be an important source for local development and a tool to reduce inequality and improve management at departmental and municipal levels. Also, he affirms that it supports the future of territorial entities, in addition to decisively favoring institutional conditions; nevertheless, it is necessary to trace a route in accordance with a strategic plan of national level, so that the local administrations can impact in an efficient way.

Politics and geopolitics, four articles are presented: the first one, Business Legitimacy, land conflict and palm production in Colombia, by Monica Hurtado and Catherine Pereira. This article is very interesting because the authors analyze from an academic standpoint a subject that has created great concern in public opinion: the eviction of 123 rural families by the Daabon Group and their subsidiaries. In this article, Hurtado and Pereira point out that the mentioned business group, has been very dynamic and of course achieved large profits, but the question that arises is: how much have they contributed to the socioeconomic welfare of the towns where they operate, because one of the responsibilities of Colombian companies is to promote development and strengthen the democratic institutions, in order to significantly contribute to national peace, thus helping maintain business legitimacy at international levels. The second, Considerations of the coffee cycle in Colombia 1925-2010, by Jose Rafael Alberto Perez Toro: discusses Colombian economic growth from an economic historic viewpoint, in which he emphasizes the role played by coffee exports in that process. To support his thesis, he reviews the cyclic behavior of international coffee prices and how these have affected the formulation of public politics in each phase and how these, in turn, have had an impact in the performance of domestic economy. Finally, the author asserts that despite the fact that the State has tried out a number of policies and changed roles, like using the resources of public savings to promote production, it has been a regulating agent watchful of the economic activity and has adopted several models to enter the international market scene in order to negotiate coffee prices and other products abroad, it requires more aggressive penetration strategies to reach the international value chain. In the third, The Metamorphosis of humanity in the Planetary Era and the emergence of Anthropolitics, by Sergio Nestor Osorio, with a conceptual and theoretical framework exposes ideas of Morin, father of the complex thought. The author resorts to the metaphors of the philosopher to explain him, placing emphasis in the four development engines of humanity, that will take it to destruction; from it, surges the need for anthropolitics as a crucial requirement for a humanistic globalization with emancipating and transforming possibilities in the Planetary Era, as mechanism of salvation. Finally, Cultural Geography and Consumption, by Jorge Luis Zapata Salcedo: this article deals with the methodological and theoretical development experienced by cultural geography, and how it has impacted in the study of the New Cultural Geography. By being narrowly connected with human geography, the author takes the "spending" variable to a real geographical space, as is the city of Monteria to explain, not only, dynamics of social interaction, but the tendency of the people to consumption by the incidence of globalization, major theme of study in contemporary society.

Strategy and security, with three articles: the first one, The law of Justice and Peace in Colombia: the configuration of a legal-political field and the symbolic fights for inclusion, by Mariana Delgado. In this article, an analysis is made of the battles given by the victims of the Colombian internal conflict, regarding the recognition of their rights. Among the problems found in those struggles, which do not lead to a good application of the law as guarantor of the affected, are on one hand, typification of crimes and on the other hand, who does it. As a consequence, social space is narrower and limits are placed on the rights of the victims for truth, justice and repair, because exclusion and domination are generated by the State. The second article, The evolution of counterinsurgency warfare: a historical overview, by Oscar Palma. Without being a historic text, the author describes how the term counter-insurgency has evolved and the effects that the different definitions have had in the application of methods to fight the insurgency. In the first case, he refers to completely failed military policies, then a politics of discredit against the followers of the rebellious groups, which although more efficient, failed to liquidate them. With all, the State continued seeking other formulas such as having its own institutions face them, but in spite of it, today other methods are required to defeat those that have risen in arms, due to the new conditions set by globalization. The last article, The presence of Security in Foreign Policy. A reading from a complex systemic approach of functional differentiation, by Maria Cristina Salas Pajon. The novelty of this article is due to the theoretical framework utilized to expose decision making in state security. The systemic constructivist theory of functional differentiation, looks at it as an operative social construction, that involves the collective imaginary or constructions of sense that identify a society-state. With that premise in mind, some States have a strong tendency to security and others do not; nevertheless, in both cases, national interest is safeguarded (seen as a social construction of sense), as basis for the construction of the tendency toward national security in foreign policy.

Finally, we wish to thank the columnists and the academic peers for their valuable cooperation. We continue counting on you, to enrich investigations of national and international actuality.

Alejandra Ripoll
Editora