Explaining the Reagan Years in Central America: A World System Perspective

Abstract

In his analysis of the relations between the United States and Central America through the 1980s, Brown seeks to broaden our view of events and historical processes by examining these relations in historical and global terms in lieu of the usual local or regional comparative focus. By drawing on the central concepts of Immanuel Wallerstein's World System Theory, the ideologically and strategically contorted policies of the Reagan years can be understood in the context of an evolving American society within the Modern World System. This critical historical narrative follows the growth of an American state and nation and its relations with Central America from its origins as a collection of colonies on the periphery of the world system, through eras of expansionism, imperialism, world wars, and triumph as global hegemon, and into ultimate crisis, decline, and conservative reaction through the 1980s. Primary emphasis is placed on the internal ideological and global strategic polarizations of the Cold War and their influence on American society, foreign relations with Central America, and the conservative extremes of the Reagan years.