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Reagan's War on Terrorism in Nicaragua

The Outlaw State

Philip W. Travis

During the first two years of Ronald Reagan’s second term the United States developed an offensive strategy for dealing with conflict in the developing world. Nicaragua was a primary target of this policy. Scholars refer to this as the Reagan offensive: the first time that the United States eschewed the norms of containment and sought to “roll-back” the gains of communism. However, the Reagan offensive was also significantly driven by a response to the emergent threat of international terrorism. Terrorism provided a vehicle that justified its use of aggressive proxy war and pursuit of regime change in Central America. U.S. policy with Nicaragua demonstrates the importance of terrorism to the development of a more aggressive United States in the post-Cold War world.

This book examines the influence of the U.S.-Contra War in establishing a precedent for the use of overt pre-emptive force against sovereign nations in the name of counterterrorism. In the 21st century, the United States undertook a policy with the world based on a broad definition of self-defense that called for an array of actions that often violated traditional norms of international law and recognition of sovereign rights. This book demonstrates that the precedent for this change occurred in the late Cold War as the United States sought to respond to an escalation of global terrorism. The emergent problem of terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s transformed how and when the United States applied force in the world.

Lexington Books

Pages: 232 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-3717-9 • Hardback • November 2016 • $123.00 • (£95.00)

978-1-4985-3719-3 • Paperback • August 2018 • $60.99 • (£47.00)

978-1-4985-3718-6 • eBook • November 2016 • $57.50 • (£44.00)

Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century, History / United States / 21st Century, History / Cold War, History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies), Political Science / American Foreign Policy, Political Science / International Relations / General

Reagan's War on Terrorism in Nicaragua

The Outlaw State

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

During the first two years of Ronald Reagan’s second term the United States developed an offensive strategy for dealing with conflict in the developing world. Nicaragua was a primary target of this policy. Scholars refer to this as the Reagan offensive: the first time that the United States eschewed the norms of containment and sought to “roll-back” the gains of communism. However, the Reagan offensive was also significantly driven by a response to the emergent threat of international terrorism. Terrorism provided a vehicle that justified its use of aggressive proxy war and pursuit of regime change in Central America. U.S. policy with Nicaragua demonstrates the importance of terrorism to the development of a more aggressive United States in the post-Cold War world.

This book examines the influence of the U.S.-Contra War in establishing a precedent for the use of overt pre-emptive force against sovereign nations in the name of counterterrorism. In the 21st century, the United States undertook a policy with the world based on a broad definition of self-defense that called for an array of actions that often violated traditional norms of international law and recognition of sovereign rights. This book demonstrates that the precedent for this change occurred in the late Cold War as the United States sought to respond to an escalation of global terrorism. The emergent problem of terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s transformed how and when the United States applied force in the world.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 232 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-3717-9 • Hardback • November 2016 • $123.00 • (£95.00)

978-1-4985-3719-3 • Paperback • August 2018 • $60.99 • (£47.00)

978-1-4985-3718-6 • eBook • November 2016 • $57.50 • (£44.00)

Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century, History / United States / 21st Century, History / Cold War, History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies), Political Science / American Foreign Policy, Political Science / International Relations / General

Author

Philip W. Travis is assistant professor of history at the State College of Florida, Manatee–Sarasota.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Imperialism, the Cold War, and the Roots of Revolution
Chapter 2: Revolution in Nicaragua
Chapter 3: Counterinsurgency-Counterterrorism
Chapter 4: Harbor Mines
Chapter 5: The Terrorist and the Freedom Fighter
Chapter 6: Outlaw States
Chapter 7: A War on Terrorism
Chapter 8: War for Peace

Reviews

Philip W. Travis's original and important book exploits a wealth of new sources. It links Reagan's war on terrorism with his interventions in Central America, with fascinating results.
— George C. Herring, University of Kentucky

Linking U.S. foreign policy in Latin America with the War on Terror in the Middle East, this provocative book shows how President Ronald Reagan initiated a hyper-interventionist tendency in American policy. Regime change, torture, and support for the worst brutality became standard parts of the Reagan Doctrine. Philip W. Travis deftly shows how the president used the label of ‘terrorism’ to justify otherwise unacceptable actions. This is an original and very timely book for readers who care about Latin America, the Middle East, and contemporary foreign policy.
— Jeremy Suri, University of Texas at Austin

In the spirit of Greg Grandin, Philip W. Travis explores the connection between President Reagan’s Central America policy and the deeper patterns that led to the War on Terror. In addition to extensive research in U.S. archives, Travis incorporates interviews with key figures, including Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez. The result is a thoughtful and provocative work that will make many readers think differently about questions of terrorism and regime change. Many have written on Reagan’s war in Nicaragua, but few have connected it to the rhetoric that has come to define the War on Terror. This is a bold work by a promising young scholar.
— Jason Colby, University of Victoria

This is a revealing account of how the Reagan Administration’s war on terrorism against the Nicaraguan Sandinista regime in the mid-1980s was conducted and how, in the author’s view, it came to influence the development of U.S. counterterrorism ever since up to the current period. . . . The extensively researched and balanced case study on the Reagan Administration’s counter-measures against the Nicaraguan Sandinista regime makes this study an important contribution to the literature on this subject.
— Perspectives on Terrorism

Reagan's War on Terrorism in Nicaragua

The Outlaw State

Philip W. Travis

Reagan's War on Terrorism in Nicaragua

The Outlaw State

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