Contenidos : Preface to the 2015 Edition

Preface

Lecture 1: The Overall Framework of Order


Lecture 2: Containing Internal Aggression


Lecture 3: Our Little Region Over Here


Lecture 4: National Security Policy


Lecture 5: The Domestic Scene


Bibliographical Notes

On Power and Ideology presents five lectures delivered by Noam Chomsky in Managua in 1986, where he analyzes the foundations of U.S. foreign policy—especially its actions in Central America. Chomsky argues that U.S. interventions are not isolated mistakes or humanitarian efforts, but part of a long-term, structured system designed to maintain global dominance, secure economic interests, and suppress independent political movements in the Global South.

He explains that U.S. leaders use concepts like “national security,” “defending democracy,” or “containing aggression” as ideological tools to justify military and political interference abroad. In reality, these policies often aim to prevent social reforms, protect elite economic power, and preserve the international order that benefits U.S. corporations and strategic interests.

Chomsky also shows how domestic factors—media, political elites, corporate influence, and internal power structures—shape foreign policy, creating a constant alignment between internal interests and external actions. Central America serves as a key example: a region repeatedly destabilized to keep it within the U.S. sphere of control.

Overall, the book argues that understanding world politics requires recognizing the structural relationship between power, economic interests, and ideology, rather than accepting official narratives at face value.