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Central American Vulnerabililty to Soviet/Cuban Penetration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Juan M. Del Aguila*
Affiliation:
Emory University and Director of its Center for International Studies

Extract

Societies and regions affected by political turmoil are subject to intrusions by states which, either directly through surrogates, or in association with local anti-status-quo groups, seek to capitalize on internal vulnerabilities. Seldom do conflicts remain isolated from the external milieu, even if fundamental causes of political turmoil are local or domestic in character. In effect, protracted conflicts, such as those sweeping Central America since the late 1970s, offer opportunities for interventionist powers to project themselves into regions where, historically, a less aggressive posture was taken. With little doubt, the view that local actors can best determine the outcome of conflict situations, such as the one in Central America, is naive and fundamentally inaccurate, no more than a pious expression of neoisolationist sentiments directly at odds with reality.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1985

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