President Barack Obama could swiftly improve U.S. relations with Latin America by announcing the death of the Monroe Doctrine and then presiding over its funeral. Such a statement would cost him little domestically, and win him praise and appreciation throughout Latin America and much of the world.
Most Americans don’t know the details of this 185-year-old policy and could care less about it. Latin Americans, in contrast, not only can describe the Monroe Doctrine, but they revile it. In effect, it has become nothing more than hollow rhetoric that offends the very people it purports to defend.
In 1823, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wrote, and President James Monroe proclaimed, a doctrine that asserted U.S. political character is different from Europe’s. The United States, President Monroe declared, would consider the extension of Europe’s monarchical political influence into the New World “as dangerous to our peace and safety.” European powers should leave the Americas for the Americans, he warned, and he strongly implied that there existed a U.S. sphere of influence south of the border.
At the time, Europe shrugged. After all, the United States possessed neither a formidable army nor navy. But three serious problems fundamentally vitiated this apparently noble gesture to protect newly independent republics in South America from European re-colonization.
First, Washington proclaimed it unilaterally. Latin Americans didn’t ask us for protection. U.S. diplomats didn’t even consult their counterparts. That was ironic, since the Doctrine’s “protection” involved placing the United States between Latin American countries and supposedly malevolent European states.
Second, its paternalism – the claim that “our southern brethren” lack the ability to defend themselves – raises hackles in Latin America. Even if the implication had some validity at one time, it no longer corresponds to the region’s reality.
The third and most problematic issue Obama faces from the outmoded doctrine relates to its legacy. For more than a century, the United States has periodically intervened in the domestic affairs of Latin American countries. Typically the United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine – without threats from Europe – to justify self-serving intrusions that have inflicted heavy damage on Latin American dignity and sovereignty.
2009-02-02 Farewell, Monroe Doctrine
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