The 20th Century One Coup at the Time: State Formation and Permanent War in Central

Abstract

Coup d’état are critical moments in which the different actors involved are force to take a position. As such, they become privileged vantage points from which to explore the process of state formation and its relation to broader geopolitical dynamics. Through the characterization of a set of coups, this article explores the relation between the process of state formation in Central America and the United States’ security policies during the 20^th Century. Besides the proposed methodological approach, the main argument of this article is that security functions as a point of confluence between the Central American processes of state formation and the United States’ process of imperial formation, around what has been called “imperial solidarity”.