For the past 2 years, the Strategic Studies Institute and the North-South Center have engaged in an effort to bring creative thinking and analysis to the most challenging security problem in the Americas, the multifaceted conflicts in Colombia. This monograph by Dr. Geoffrey Demarest looks at an important issue, property rights, as bearing directly on the inability of Colombia to assert authority over its entire territory as well as to implement the social agenda of Plan Colombia. The author appropriately cites the much-discussed latest work of Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital. The Peruvian economist makes a strong case that development in less-developed countries does not take place, in large measure, not because the poor lack assets but because without recognized property rights they are unable to mobilize them.