Nonviolence in violence: Approaches to international conflict resolution in Costa Rica

Costa Rica claims to be one of the few neutral and nonaligned states to have abolished its military power. It furnishes an historical context for exploring two hypotheses: first, that nonviolent, cooperative international conflict resolution has promoted peace, security, and development, and second, that violent international conflict resolution has promoted war, insecurity, and underdevelopment. Discussion of the theory, method, and outcome for such conflict resolution will include a new indicator on serial violence as well as data on housing, health, education, and employment. This indicator of conflict intensity measures the percentage of people killed in periodic war over twenty-year time spans, and contributes to the United Nations' General Assembly security and international conflict resolution debate which links peace, disarmament, and development. The thesis will focus on Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua along the San Juan River, a conflictive border which continues to be a focus of attention as a possible site for an isthmian border canal, and for use as a possible cornerstone in various isthmian peace plans. The United States has withdrawn twice from a world court in the Twentieth Century over conflict concerning this border (associated with intervention by Japan and Israel, United Nations peacekeeping overtures, and European Economic Community trade). A world order rather than an anti-dependency or a nonviolent approach to resolve conflict dominates international conflict resolution, concentrated especially in four major global zones of conflict including the Western Caribbean. Resorting to violent conflict resolution has fostered an insurgent international arms and drug (cocaine) business similar to that operating in pre-1959 Cuba and a growing international debt. This dissertation will address not only problematic international Iran-Contra issues, but also why an integrated approach to cooperative development in the resolution of conflict will be necessary in the future.