Posted by
Bert Chapman on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 7:29:24 PM
In 1823 President James Monroe issued a seminal foreign policy statement which has become known as the Monroe Doctrine. This stated that the United States would view any European involvement in Latin America as a threat to the United States to be resisted. At the time of its issuance, the U.S. did not have the military power to effectively enforce this so the Royal Navy served as the de facto enforcer of this policy until the U.S. gained requisite military strength around the turn of the 20th century.
In 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt issued the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine by declaring that the U.S. and the right to intervene to economically stabilize Caribbean and Central American countries. In 1912, in response to concerns that Japan was seeking a foothold in Mexico, Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge succeeded in getting Congress to pass the Lodge Corollary which sought to forbid any foreign power from gaining a foothold in the Western Hemisphere if such a presence gave that government de facto control of that country's territory.
Nearly a century has passed and a lot of water has passed under the bridge in Latin American geopolitics including the tumult of the Cold War. Now a new power is starting to make its presence more visible in Latin America and that power is China. Beijing has sought to cultivate influence in this region by encouraging nations to cut their diplomatic ties with Taiwan and diplomatically recognize China to be eligible for foreign economic assistance packages that do not contain the political or economic restrictions that U.S. foreign assistance frequently does. The Chinese have sold arms to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and are seeking to expand their access to Latin American natural resources including oil to fuel China's growing economic power. If China is allowed to gain a military foothold in Latin America it could threaten the Panama Canal and U.S. access to the southern Caribbean and western Pacific in the event of a future crisis that could be precipitated by the U.S. becoming to economically dependent on Chinese loans.
This increasing Chinese influence in Latin America is being reflected in scholarly literature, military and international affairs analyses, and in governmental reports. A 2008
report prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations by the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service addresses the use of Chinese "soft power" in South America, Africa, and Asia. Agencies such as the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission have prepared detailed analyses of China's interest in Latin America and in 2005 the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute prepared this
report on the national security implications of Chinese involvement in Latin America. The U.S. Naval War College also has recently established a center to study Chinese maritime affairs as part of additional military concern over China's growing international assertiveness.
It's possible Chinese intentions toward Latin America are benign, but the history of the rise of international great powers from non-democratic regimes does not give one reason to be optimistic.
Consequently, the United States needs to prepare an updated 21st century version of the Monroe Doctrine which states that China or any other non Western Hemisphere power will not be allowed to gain a geopolitical or strategic presence in Latin America which could threaten the U.S. economy or national security interests. I don't expect this will happen during the Obama Administration which continues to practice appeasement at a rate pleasing to Neville Chamberlain. We can hope that congressional Republicans will take notice of this growing Chinese interest in Latin America and that prospective 2012 GOP presidential candidates will also begin educating the public of the dangers of increased Chinese involvement in Latin America.