Nicaragua Must Survive tells the story of the Sandinistas' innovative diplomatic campaign, which captured the imaginations of people around the globe and transformed Nicaraguan history at the tail end of the Cold War. The Sandinistas' diplomacy went far beyond elite politics, as thousands of musicians, politicians, teachers, activists, priests, feminists, and journalists flocked to the country to experience the revolution firsthand. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, Eline van Ommen reveals the role that Western Europe played in Nicaragua's revolutionary diplomacy. Blending grassroots organizing and formal foreign policy, pragmatic guerrillas, creative diplomats, and ambitious activists from Europe and the Americas were able to create an international environment in which the Sandinista Revolution could survive despite the odds. Nicaragua Must Survive argues that this diplomacy was remarkably effective, propelling Nicaragua into the global limelight and allowing the revolutionaries to successfully challenge the United States' role in Central America.

About the Author

Eline van Ommen is Lecturer in Contemporary History at the University of Leeds.

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Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction
1 • Internationalizing Struggle, 1977–1979
2 • Triumph and Consolidation, 1979–1980
3 • The Revolution under Attack, 1981–1982
4 • Creative Defense, 1983–1984
5 • Fundraising for the Revolution, 1985–1986
6 • Peace and Elections, 1987–1990
Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"In what is one of the best books I have read on organising, Eline Van Ommen, a lecturer in Contemporary History at the University of Leeds, celebrates the role played by grassroots organisers in transforming history."
— Morning Star

"Clearly, van Ommen’s archival research is impressive. In addition to being expertly researched in at least four languages and across many archives, Nicaragua Must Survive accomplishes the challenging task of contextualizing and explaining the policy actions of many different nations, administrations, and organizations. In this task, van Ommen’s clear writing goes a long way."

— NACLA

"Nicaragua Must Survive is distinctly transnational, pouring beyond Nicaragua’s borders to explore the international networks that channeled political, financial, economic, and military support to opposing sides of the revolution. Van Ommen, to great success, traces these networks beyond the Americas, to western European states and citizens in the late Cold War."
— Hispanic American Historical Review

"Historian Eline van Ommen has written a fascinating book on the Sandinista revolution that succeeded in ending the long dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979."
— European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

"Van Ommen’s work is incredibly well researched and beautifully written. This is a much needed, evocative study that greatly enhances the field."
— Diplomatic History

"van Ommen go[es] beyond the prevailing understanding of the Nicaraguan Revolution as a stark, binary US–Nicaraguan conflict in a Cold War mould."
— International Affairs

"Thanks to extraordinary multilingual, multicountry research, Eline van Ommen recasts the international story of the Sandinistas of the 1970s and 1980s by decentering the United States. It turns out that Western European diplomats and activists played outsized roles in keeping the leftist revolution legitimate and alive against a U.S.-led military and propaganda onslaught. Sandinistas, creative and pragmatic in using Europeans as leverage, emerge from this gripping narrative as full actors in their own diplomatic saga. Nicaragua Must Survive is a triumph of historical sleuthing and storytelling."—Alan McPherson, author of The Invaded: How Latin Americans and Their Allies Fought and Ended U.S. Occupations

"Nicaragua Must Survive breaks new ground in the history of the Sandinista Revolution and the Cold War. By transcending the traditional divide between histories of Latin America and Europe, van Ommen has written one of the most innovative and important works of international and transnational scholarship in recent memory."—Renata Keller, author of Mexico's Cold War: Cuba, the United States, and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution

"In this innovative and deeply researched account, van Ommen reveals revolutionary Nicaragua's little-known struggle to construct a new international order at a crucial juncture in the global Cold War. Deftly tracking the interplay between politicians, diplomats, and transnational solidarity activists, Nicaragua Must Survive convincingly illuminates the signal importance of Western Europe for the FSLN's revolutionary diplomacy."—William Michael Schmidli, author of Freedom on the Offensive: Human Rights, Democracy Promotion, and US Interventionism in the Late Cold War

Awards

L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize Shortlist 2024, British International Studies Association
UKLAH Honorable Mention 2024, UK Latin American History Network (UKLAH)

About the Book