Superpower Cooperation in the Caribbean and Central America

Central America — the scene of civil war upheavals, Soviet expansionism, Cuban intervention and United States anxiety — merits attention as a unique arena in which to assess superpower cooperation in conflict management. This is so for at least three reasons. First, Central America’s geographic location makes it a high priority in US security policy. Like other great powers, the US has resisted political developments in neighboring states that pose unacceptable threats to its national security.1 US concern about Central America has been exacerbated by the region’s political turbulence since World War II, dramatized by radical leftist movements and the emergence in 1979 of Sandinista Nicaragua as a major US security issue. Until the Sandinista’s stunning election loss in February 1990, the US viewed Nicaragua, like Cuba, as an opportunity for Soviet expansionism.