"Dissident Peace is a thorough examination of the profound contradictions of seeking peace within State-driven frameworks. Based on an exemplary engagement with black and indigenous movements in Colombia over several years, the author demonstrates why their struggles for self-determination offer a cogent and workable alternative to dominant peace paradigms. With this outstanding book, Dest emerges as one of the foremost theorizers of the meaning and practice of autonomy in Latin America." Arturo Escobar, author of Pluriversal Politics (2020) and co-author of Relationality: An Emergent Politics of Life Beyond the Human (2024) "Dissident Peace is an incredibly rich and beautifully-written account of the limits and possibilities of peace in Colombia. Centering Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities' struggles over territory and life, this work is a powerful reminder that autonomy, however partial, cannot be given from above, but must be manifested from below." Tianna Paschel, University of California, Berkeley "A much-needed critique of the concept of peace, told through the story of the 2016 Colombian peace process between the revolutionary guerrillas and the state. Focusing on the struggles for autonomy of marginalized black and indigenous communities, this is an account which nevertheless shores up spaces of hope for a better future." Alpa Shah, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford and author of The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India and Nightmarch: Among India's Revolutionary Guerrillas
