Rather, the United States should vigorously mobilize support within the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and partners in Latin America - Mexico and Brazil, particularly - as well as in Europe, to set up a framework within which serious negotiations can take place. The Colombian government, for example, should no longer be both convener and party to the conflict, as it is today, but rather concentrate on playing the latter role. By spearheading such a multilateral effort, the U.S. will be engaging the international community and directly responding to the many criticisms about current U.S. involvement that have emerged from Europe and Latin America since the adoption of Plan Colombia (and are likely to be only temporarily muted by the Andean Regional Initiative). International dissatisfaction with current policy - a disapproval of the United States' lack of consultation and unilateral decision-making in its dealings with Colombia - may be mitigated through participation in multilateral arrangements that stress consensus-building and dialogue. As other conflicts in the world have shown, sustained international engagement is critical if a faltering peace effort has any chance of taking hold.

With the possible exceptions of Mexico and Cuba, Latin America seldom gets the kind of high-level, constant political attention more commonly given to the Middle East or Europe. Yet Colombia demands precisely that kind of attention. It poses one of the most formidable foreign policy tests for the Bush administration. The big question is whether the U.S. will be able to meet the challenge by transcending the myopic focus on fighting drugs and instead exercise leadership to help the hemisphere's most troubled nation relieve its humanitarian nightmare and move towards an enduring peace.