Nicaragua A Case Of Intervention

A penetrating analysis of the controversial U.S. role in the 1990 Nicaraguan elections-the most closely monitored in history-this book exposes the intervention in the electoral process of a sovereign nation by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, the National Endowment for Democracy, and private U.S.-based organizations. Robins

As President Carter’s ambassador to Nicaragua from 1977–1979, Mauricio Solaún witnessed a critical moment in Central American history. In U.S. Intervention and Regime Change in Nicaragua, Solaún outlines the role of U.S. foreign policy during the Carter administration and explains how this policy with respect to the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979 not only failed but helped impede the institutionalization of democracy there. Late in the 1970s, the United States took issue with the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. Moral suasion, economic sanctions, and other peaceful instruments from Washington led to violent revolution in Nicaragua and bolstered a new dictatorial government. A U.S.-supported counterrevolution formed, and Solaún argues that the United States attempts to this day to determine who rules Nicaragua. Solaún explores the mechanisms that kept Somoza’s poorly legitimized regime in power for decades, making it the most enduring Latin American authoritarian regime of the twentieth century. Solaún argues that continual shifts in U.S. international policy have been made in response to previous policies that failed to produce U.S.- friendly international environments. His historical survey of these policy shifts provides a window on the working of U.S. diplomacy and lessons for future policy-making.

In approaching the writing of Intervention in the International Court of Justice, the author soon reached two conclusions. The first was that in order to understand the attitude of the Court today in applying the provisions of Articles 62 and 63 of the Statute, considerable importance attaches to their legislative history. In the Barcelona Traction (Preliminary Objections) case the Court referred to the `drafting records' of certain provisions of the Rules of Court under consideration there. The second conclusion was that examination of the decisions of the Court in intervention proceedings incidentally and in isolation from the case as a whole could put the material out of focus. The Court's position in a case of intervention can only be fully assessed in the context of the proceedings as a whole, when the real influence of the intervention phase on the final decision comes into the open. In addition, a new dimension, that of modern diplomacy, could be added to an understanding of the difficulties posed - for the Court, for individual States and for their legal advisers - by the institution of intervention. The book is based on a series of courses given by the author as Belle van Zuylen Professor in the Humanities at the University of Utrecht in 1986--1987. Nicaragua's intervention in the `Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute' case between El Salvador and Honduras before a Chamber of the International Court led to a complete reexamination of the whole work, and to this current publication.

One of the main purposes of the United Nations is to bring about, by peaceful means, adjustment or settlement of international disputes. This is accomplished through the International Court of Justice, a principal organ of the United Nations. A full list of ICJ publications can be obtained by contacting your nearest UN Publications Sales Office.

Opposite pages bear duplicate numbering. ICJ sales no. 549.

The topic of humanitarian intervention has become increasingly significant since the end of the Cold War. Despite a substantial body of literature on the subject in the past, recent developments justify a contemporary study of the subject. This book is not only timely, given the crises which have occasioned United Nations interventions over the past several years, but enduring, as international political structures undergo stress and reform, and as international law and international relations theorists grapple with the sovereignty/intervention problem. It defends the emergence of a right of humanitarian intervention and argues that state sovereignty is not incompatible with humanitarian intervention. After a thorough review of historical precedents, the book concludes by assessing contemporary developments in terms of sources of support for intervention on humanitarian grounds.