FROM CIVIL-WAR TO CIVIL-SOCIETY - HAS THE END OF THE COLD-WAR BROUGHTPEACE TO CENTRAL-AMERICA

Revisiting one arena of the Cold War-Central America-which dominated i nternational headlines in the 1980s, this article explores its legacy on the region. It asks whether the ending of the Cold War and the peac e accords which concluded the internal wars of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala in 1990, 1992 and 1996, respectively, have brought susta inable peace, development and democracy. In particular, it explores th e changing agenda of international financial and development agencies which have supported the postwar reconstruction of the region. The exp eriences of Nicaragua and El Salvador have shown that failure to coord inate the efforts at economic adjustment with those of peace-building compromised the possibilities of development and democratization, part icularly for the poorest sectors of the population. Conservative elite s who emerged intact h-om the war were able to consolidate their econo mic power, and resist and Limit political reform, while handing respon sibility for the poor and the former war zones to international agenci es. The latter have shifted their agenda in the Guatemalan peace proce ss, incorporating a strategy of 'civil society strengthening' in order to build capacity within society to create more accountable and democ ratic states, The conclusion of the article explores the ambiguities o f this strategy. On the positive side it legitimizes and protects the newly won but fragile freedoms of speech and association in the region ; on the negative side, it risks turning a historical social and polit ical dynamic into externally funded 'projects' with limited sustainabi lity, whose outcome many international agencies tend to assume they ca n shape to their own expectations.