Bajo el título Sequencing: Targeting Insurgents and Drugs In Colombia, y con la asesoría de los profesores Douglas Porch y Jeanne Giraldo, en marzo de 2007, la oficial naval de Estados Unidos Michelle L. Farell presentó en 125 páginas la tesis final para obtener el doctorado en Ciencias Navales de la Postgraduate Naval School con sede en Monterrey Califonia. Dentro del extenso acervo académico y bibliografía consultada la mencionada estudiante utilizó el texto The Farc Cartel escrito originalmente en español bajo el título El Cartel de las Farc por el coronel del Ejército colombiano Luis Alberto Villamarín Pulido, en el cual hay un análisis estratégico de orden cronológico en torno a al inmersión de las Farc en el narcotráfico y el naroterrorismo.
La tesis de Farrell se sintetiza en las siguientes frases:
"Peru’s success in first defeating the Shining Path guerrilla movement in the early 1990s and then reducing coca cultivation in the mid-1990s demonstrates the effectiveness of a sequential approach to these problems; however, is the sequential approach an effective model for handling the dual threat, particularly in Colombia? This thesis examines the overall effectiveness of two distinctly different strategies for dealing with the dual threat of drugs and terrorism in Colombia: President Pastrana’s “drugs first” strategy and President Uribe’s unified campaign against both guerrillas and drugs. It finds that President Uribe’s unified campaign was more effective than President Pastrana’s sequential strategy."
"While President Pastrana’s drugs first strategy was relatively effective in targeting the illicit drug trade, it did not eliminate the illicit drug industry nor did it achieve its secondary objective of weakening the war-making
capacity of the FARC-EP. President Uribe’s unified strategy met substantial initial success as regional and national security dramatically improved and a weakening of the FARC-EP was observed. Despite such success, elimination of the FARC-EP still remains beyond Colombia’s reach and the continuation of counter-narcotic policies seem to be reaping diminishing returns. To continue making progress against both threats a continuation of a comprehensive unified campaign is required".