Responding to the Crisis in El Salvador: A Public Order Perspective

Abstract

In the contemporary world, civil wars produce widespread international effects. In the past, limited means of transportation and less sophisticated communications permitted at least a partial insulation of civil wars in places far from the territories of the great powers. Transnational interactions were fewer; people's foci of attention were narrower. Thus, popular demands and identifications were more circumscribed. Scientific and technological advances changed these conditions. International economic actors used new technology to integrate national economies into larger networks and to obtain information about commercial opportunities and risks. Security arrangements were developed to maintain and expand access to the resources and markets that modern industrial economies require. These factors have helped to shape the present world community, which is characterized by increasingly interrelated social processes and equally intricate political and economic interdependence.