Sandinista Nicaragua's Resistance to US Coercion Revolutionary Deterrence in Asymmetric Conflict Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics Series

How was the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua able to resist the Reagan Administration's coercive efforts to rollback their revolution? Héctor Perla challenges conventional understandings of this conflict by tracing the process through which Nicaraguans, both at home and in the diaspora, defeated US aggression in a highly unequal confrontation. He argues that beyond traditional diplomatic, military, and domestic state policies a crucial element of the FSLN's defensive strategy was the mobilization of a transnational social movement to build public opposition to Reagan's policy within the United States, thus preventing further escalation of the conflict. Using a contentious politics approach, the author reveals how the extant scholarly assumptions of international relations theory have obscured some of the most consequential dynamics of the case. This is a fascinating study illustrating how supposedly powerless actors were able to constrain the policies of the most powerful nation on earth.

Introduction; 1. History of US-Nicaragua relations; 2. International relations theory, asymmetric conflicts and contentious politics; 3. Revolutionary deterrence; 4. Challenging Reagan; 5. Media framing and opposition to the use of force in US foreign policy; 6. Activating public opinion; 7. Stopping rollback: evidence of revolutionary deterrence on Congressional opposition, Reagan, and Reagan administration decision-making; Conclusion. Scope conditions and implications of revolutionary deterrence; Epilogue. Post-revolutionary developments.

Héctor Perla is Assistant Professor for the Latin American and Latino Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.