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Central America: No Easy Answers

By Richard E. Feinberg
Summer 1981
Article Summary and Author Biography

Until recently a quiet, secure backwater, Central America is now convulsed by revolution, civil war, border clashes, economic disruption, refugee camps and clandestine arms networks. These upheavals are posing difficult but not unfamiliar issues for U.S. foreign policy. Are the origins of the crises essentially indigenous, or the work of outside powers? What U.S. response will minimize the opportunities of the opposing superpower to exploit the situation? Can local forces pressing for change be accommodated, or must they be confronted and defeated? Are diplomatic solutions possible where a high degree of polarization has already occurred? How can the United States prevent disturbances from spreading into more neutral countries? Can other external powers play a constructive role? What measure of resource commitment is commensurate with the U.S. interests at stake?

Richard E. Feinberg was a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the State Department from 1977 through 1979 and is currently an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is editor and co-author of the forthcoming Central America: International Dimensions of the Crisis. His work on this article was supported by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and by a grant from the German Marshall Fund.

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