The U.S. Can’t Exclude China From Latin America
Key takeaways
- President James Monroe warned European powers against intervention in the Western Hemisphere, the United States again finds itself confronting a geopolitical challenge in the region.
- The Monroe Doctrine was a strategy of exclusion: It sought to keep external powers from establishing territorial and political control in the Western Hemisphere.
- China exercises its influence less through force than economic integration, technological dependence, and structural leverage.
Nearly two centuries after U.S. President James Monroe warned European powers against intervention in the Western Hemisphere, the United States again finds itself confronting a geopolitical challenge in the region. In the last two decades, China has dramatically expanded its economic, technological, and strategic presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. But today’s environment differs fundamentally from that of the Monroe Doctrine.
The Monroe Doctrine was a strategy of exclusion: It sought to keep external powers from establishing territorial and political control in the Western Hemisphere. That framework does not reflect the realities of 21st-century competition. China is not expanding its influence in Latin America through conquest or occupation. Instead, Beijing has embedded itself into the region’s infrastructure, trade networks, energy systems, digital ecosystems, and strategic industries.
Nearly two centuries after U.S. President James Monroe warned European powers against intervention in the Western Hemisphere, the United States again finds itself confronting a geopolitical challenge in the region. In the last two decades, China has dramatically expanded its economic, technological, and strategic presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. But today’s environment differs fundamentally from that of the Monroe Doctrine.