A “IMAGINED COMMUNITIES” IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

THE NARRATIVES ABOUT THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES IN FACE OF NICARAGUAN REVOLUTION AND SALVADORAN CIVIL WAR IN THE 1980S

Abstract

The narratives about the countries and their international relations construct images of the nation and images of the “others”, which can function as a consensus-making device in the international arena, including justifying direct and indirect interventions? This paper discusses how narratives about the countries on the international arena imagine the nation and legitimize its international relations. To analyze this question, this paper is divided in two parts. First this paper addresses the concept of nation articulated to international relations studies. Second, this paper analyzes the narratives of american intellectuals in Commentary Magazine, a conservative and interventionist magazine, in face of the U.S. role in Nicaraguan revolution and Salvadoran civil war in the 1980s.