Instruments of American Foreign Policy during the first presidential term of Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1957) toward Guatemala and Costa Rica

<ns3:p>This article aims to analyze the foreign policy instruments used by the United States under the first Presidential term of Dwight Eisenhower toward Guatemala and Costa Rica. Based on foreign policy objectives of Eisenhower’s administration, this article analyzes the decisions of the United States about the selection and subsequent implementation of the instruments of socialization, coercion and intervention in order to assess how these instruments are connected with each other and how they correspond with the foreign policy objectives. The main hypothesis of this article is that Eisenhower’s administration focused on coercive instrument as the most effective one in securing a set of particular American interests abroad. The coercive approaches toward Guatemala and Costa Rica were however different because of the perceived degree of socialization between the United States and each of these two Central American states. The more socialization was based on similar ideas, the more coercion was centered around coercion rooted in the maintenance of similar interests that followed the ideas. On the other hand, the more those interests diverged, the more pressure was placed on another state in order to coerce it into changing its ideas and interests into those compatible with the U.S. As evident in the case of Guatemala, the coercive pressure could shift into adoption of intervention as a foreign policy instrument that could allow the United States to meet its objectives.</ns3:p>