ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Nicaraguan foreign policy objectives as they related to regional peace and security issues after 1979. It outlines Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) strategies and negotiation positions vis-a-vis the United States, bordering states and the Contadora peace process. The immediate and pressing issue for the Nicaraguan government remained negotiating an end to the contra war. The FSLN rejected the notion of negotiating under overwhelming military pressures. The FSLN negotiating stance was that military reduction formulations had to reflect the size of the threat that each state faced. As a senior FSLN foreign policy official put it following Thomas Enders' historic ultimatum to the Sandinistas in 1981: "A state that agrees to negotiate on internal matters wounds its substantive reason for being a state. The FSLN made negotiating proposals concerning foreign advisors and regional weapons build-ups. Rhetoric from the White House in late 1985 and 1986 indicated instead a deep cynicism among administration ideologues about negotiating with "communists."
