A new aspect of low-intensity conflict can be seen today in El Salvador, where the decade-long insurgency appears able to continue without aid from traditional sources in Cuba and East Europe. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) made its debut in 1980, but not before a private support network was established in the U.S. and other western countries to provide funds and political support for its struggle to overthrow the Salvadoran government. The FMLN is the most sophisticated guerrilla force in Latin American history. Raising millions of dollars, the FMLN relies on a well-oiled propaganda machine run by American supporters to pressure Congress to weaken the Salvadoran government. Utilizing front groups, churches, and public figures, the FMLN's private network has stymied policymakers in Washington and San Salvador. This book illuminates this new dimension of low-intensity conflict that will confound the U.S. and its allies in the decade to come.
Dr. Waller holds the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair in International Communication at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.
Homepage: www.iwp.edu
Dr. Waller directs the Institute's graduate programs on public diplomacy and political warfare.
He was a founding editor of Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, published in cooperation with the American University and Moscow State University. Dr. Waller was a member of the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and has served as a consultant to the U.S. Information Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has written for Insight, Reader's Digest, the Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal. His books include the prizewinning Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today (Westview, 1994).
More biographical information: http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/facultyID.12/profile.asp
