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Acknowledgments
Intellectual production as a form of social action is a collective
process.
No book is authored by a single individual, no matter whose name
appears on a cover. It is impossible here to list all those people who
contributed in a myraid of ways, ranging from critical commentary,
intellectual insights and scholarly interest, to editorial assistance,
material support, interest, personal encouragement, and time invested
in mundane tasks, to making this book possible.
The first order of thanks is to those who have contributed to my own
intellectual, professional, political, and personal development over the
years. A full list of such people would comprise a book in itself, but
several stand out. One is my lifelong friend, colleague, and
intellectual
comrade, Kent Norsworthy, who has selflessly contributed to the
present work in every imaginable way, starting with our collective
political-intellectual awakening many years ago, and involving the
most solid friendship a person could provide through good and
difficult times, including through a dream deferred - for the two of us
and millions more - in one little comer of this world. Another is Kevin
Robinson, whose encouragement in the most difficult moments of the
present work helped see me to its completion. Apart from their
enthusiasm and other forms of support for this project, both provided
invaluable, chapter-by-chapter editorial and content suggestions. A
third is Felipe Gonzales, former professor and now friend and
colleague, who provided editorial recommendations, encouragement,
and other magnanimous assistance in critical moments. Many thanks
also to William Stanley for his critical feedback on much of the
manuscript,
and for many a stimulating intellectual exchange, on the present
study and related matters.
The Interhemispheric Resource Center, a private non-profit research
and policy institute located in Albuquerque, New Mexico - and in
particular, Tom Barry and Beth Sims - made available to me for
research purposes the extensive archive it has accumulated as part of
its ongoing "US Government Democratization Programs and Other
Democratization Issues" project. I have made use of several dozen
documents obtained by the Center (referred to subsequently in this
volume as The Resource Center) through periodic Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) requests it files with the National Endowment for
Democracy and other agencies. How I have chosen to make use of
these documents is my sole responsibility and this study does not
reflect in any way the work or positions of The Resource Center.
Robert Sandels and Robert Fiala gave critical comments on several
journal articles dealing with the themes of this book that later gave me
some important insights and correctives for the manuscript. Thanks
also to Nelson Valdes, David Dye, Wilmar Cuarezma, Worth Cooley-
Prost, and Martin Vega, and to Alejandro Bendana of the Center for
International Studies (CEI) of the Central American University in
Managua, for varied contributions. Craig Murphy showed a much
appreciated interest in my work, and provided encouragement and
crucial editorial suggestions in the final phases of the manuscript. His
work, involving a research agenda closely related to my own, has been
a source of intellectual inspiration, as have been the works of other
scholars from the "Italian School" in international relations, and from
the cutting edge of development, comparative, and globalization
studies in sociology, whom I have not yet had the opportunity to meet
or correspond with but whose imprint should be unmistakable in the
text. Thanks are also in order to anonymous Cambridge University
Press readers. Finally, I am also grateful to the Press's amicable
social
science commissioning editor, John Haslam, for his professional
concern and attentiveness for the manuscript, as well as his patience
with the whims of at least one fussy author, and with whom it has
been a pleasure to work. And an apology to those I might have
unintentionally forgotten to acknowledge. The content of this book,
and all the inevitable shortcomings therein, are my sole responsibility.
There is a final and very special acknowledgment, to Gioconda, my
compafiera de lucha, and to my children, Amaru and Tamara, to whom
this book is dedicated. As tender young representatives of a new
generation, they symbolize my hope and faith in humanity, no matter
how grim our plight may seem to me in these trying times.
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