Insecurity, Interests And The Military Diversionary Use Of Force: The Soccer War Among Honduras And El Salvador1969

Classical theory of war argues when political leaders are facing domestic strife, they feela sense of insecurity around him, they will attempt to develop external diversionary actionsfor divert the population from domestic problems. This theory has been theoreticallyunsupported because it does not pay attention to the relevant role played by militaries in theuse of force abroad. Domestic conflict will lead to external foreign aggression when itthreatens the military interest, if not military will reject to use force outside. Only one kind ofdomestic struggle Contested Political Institutions generated by the struggle of political eliteswill threaten militaries organization encouraging them to use the force abroad as a form ofprotection and survival to their organization.The concept of contested political institutions was previously mentioned by Kurt Dasseland Eric Reinhart establishing that when institutions are contested, diverse political groupsdisagree over fundamental political rules of a determined political system such as democracy,dictatorship or autocratic governments.In states undergoing political transitions-such as Democratizations and Revolutions-,political elites will have two options: either to reach an agreement over fundamental rules forthe instauration of a political system to follow or not to reach any such agreement at all.In this case, if political elites do not agree over political fundamental rules, they mustattempt to use extra institutional means to get a consolidation of their power. One of thesetendencies is the exercise of coercive capabilities. These capabilities are the most suitableway for attempt to control one state. According to it, the essential actor who has the basictools and coercive capabilities is the military organization; political elites will try to gain theabsolute control over the Armed Forces.These several conflicts generated by political elites over fundamental politics rules areprovoking a Contested Political Institutions, threatening to the military organization and theirinterests; make them more prone to use force abroad in order to keep their autonomy, strengthand power.The Contestation of political Institutions brings as a result a political chaos in stateswhere two strong political forces are fighting to get the power. Hence, they will use any kindof political instruments to obtain the consolidation of a determined political system such as inserting civilian commissary into the military organization, promoting officers on the basisof political loyalty or destroying military organization. Consequently political leaders and notthe military organization will choose when and how use the force. Facing with this panorama,militaries will be more able to use force abroad, as intent to divert their domestic enemy andthus way protecting their organizational interest.In the outbreak of the Cold War, two Central American states, Honduras and El Salvadorwere characterized by having a domestic strife, where two strong political parties in eachcountry were engaged in a struggle for the power. This conflict was caused by the product ofDemocratization that was strongly supported by United States under Kennedys’ Governmentwhere a political strategy more flexible and less radical, according with U.S interests, whichled to the creation of new political parties. This policy lead by the U.S allowed the emergenceof more democratic parties and less authoritarian leaders, and it resulted in an internalstruggle between who wield the power (Military) at that time and political parties that werestruggling for the consolidation of a new political system.The conflict between political elites was generating the destruction of militaryorganization and military autonomy; in instead of this situation militaries did not have moreoption that provoked an external war with this neighbor.In previous years, the relationship between Honduras and El Salvador was in highlevels of understanding and comprehension, being member of a regional institution, CentralAmerican Common Market (CACM) and Central America Regional Security Council(CARS), nevertheless when the level of this relationship was in good terms, a regionalconflict took place.In1969, a regional war commonly known such as “The Soccer War” broke out betweenthese two countries, resulting the murdered of millions of civilians. The war betweenHonduras and El Salvador was irrelevant and did not have sense, because they do not have ahistory of rivalries among themselves and they do not perceive themselves as a potentialthreat.Security Dilemma never took place in these two countries, because the power exercisedby the United States imposed a regional control, specifically in these two countries and alsoin Central America.The majority of the studies about diversionary use of force give emphasis to theparticular case of United States. The goal in this study is to expand these arguments to another political environment, where the main actor is the military organization.According to it, the focus in this study will be the analysis of military behavior and howmisperception or insecurity leads to military organization to the use of force abroad. For thatreasons the consideration of domestic variables are decisive to understand the causes ofbelligerent foreign policy in the break of the Soccer War between Honduras and El Salvador.Given the relevant power exercised by militaries in Honduras and El Salvador in thepolitical context, is easier for them making credible external threats, otherwise the use offorce by militaries at home could be quite dramatic, leading to the disintegration of themilitary organization and high probabilities of civil war, generating the loss of their entirepower.Since there are many types of domestic strife leading to external aggression such Coupd’état, riots, low approval of leader popularity, this research will propose to specify what kindof domestic strife allowed to Honduran and Salvadoran militaries to use the force each otherin1969.Studying one kind of domestic strife (Political Elites Struggle), it will provide evidencethat Contested Political Institutions had influenced Honduran and Salvadoran Militaryorganizations to use the force abroad in1969. Analyzing the consideration of politicaltransitions simultaneously in these two countries, political elites resorted to use extra-institutional ways to achieve their ends, trying to gain absolute control over the Armed Forces,threatening military interests and encouraging to the use of diversionary actions abroad inorder to protect their integrity and strength.With the occurrence of the Soccer war among these countries, it will demonstrate thatthe military created a rally around the flag effect, as a consequence militaries privileges andunity was strengthened, decreasing the domestic opposition and increasing the militarypopularity and control over civil rules.Regarding this issue, this research will contribute to the widely literature of causes ofwar, finding a linkage between conflict over basic political rules and diversionary theory.Also it will contribute to the literature of Latin American Studies, where the majority ofscholars when analyze Latin American politics made incorrect interpretations in base ofmisguided assumptions. It’s necessary to build a new hardcore based in Latin Americandomestic political circumstances and geographical characteristics that are different than otherregions in the world. The study of small states going to war is important and considerable to the field ofInternational Relations; because it can contribute to understand under what domesticconditions small states are forced go to war.Analyzing domestic causes can strengthen the field of International Relations and allowthe building of more interesting approaches, because the main study actor is not always thesame (great power) and the analysis level is not often focus in systemic level, as war amonggreat powers that have been a topic amply discussed with many interpretations.Although many scholars have been studied the role of political leaders on the use offorce; only few scholars have studied in depth terms related to the involvement of the militaryinstitution and the importance of military interest into the political system.Throughout The Military Diversionary Use of Force Approach will be tested thatmilitary interests matter, because if the military organization feel threaten by political elitesdisagreement, they will attempt to use the force to keep their autonomy and survive. The roleexercised by the military institution will be a crucial element to understand why somepartners states went to war in despite of the strength of economic and security terms signedbetween them.