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This article proposes to establish a relation between the democratic security policy and the doctrine of national security in Colombia, with the intent of stressing the features of continuity between these two discourses and, based on that, understand the implications of democratic security policy for the present configuration of the national political scene. We will try to identify this continuity through an analysis of three processes: the formation of the Colombian armed forces, the role of the United States in Colombia's security policy and the formation of civil armed groups of paramilitary orientation. Articulating these three elements we argue that although the events of September 11 may have provided important political capital for the undertaking of the democratic security policy, its content and implication can only be made clear when we re-establish its connection with the doctrine of national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]