By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-28 21:31:24 | Updated at 2025-03-31 14:00:03
2 days ago
James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, enunciated his Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which proclaimed the Western Hemisphere (basically North and South America) off limits to further European colonisation even as America respected existing European colonies in the Americas.
Since 1823, the American drive to the Pacific, assumption of the former lands of the Spanish empire – Texas, California, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines (which became independent in 1946) – and purchase of Alaska from Russia (in 1867), all extended Pax Americana.
In the 20th century, Teddy Roosevelt, as the 26th president, engineered the treaty that allowed America to build and control the Panama Canal, and declared his “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine: announcing that America would intervene as a last resort to ensure Western Hemisphere nations did not violate US rights or bring foreign aggression.
This Monroe Doctrine 2.0 was tested during the 1962 Cuban crisis, when the Soviet Union tried to place missiles in Cuba. The US also intervened in Nicaragua, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
It has been 202 years since the Monroe Doctrine was declared and Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th US president, appears to be restating the doctrine for the 21st century with his talk of “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, bringing Canada in as the 51st state and buying Greenland from Denmark.
How does this square with Trump’s stance as an anti-war president, who as presidential candidate vowed to end the forever wars of his predecessors? Since taking over in January, he has sought a resolution to the Ukraine and Gaza wars – leaving the costs of defending Ukraine to Europe to handle, dealing with Iran and Israel to try to settle the Middle East, and aiming to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on a diplomatic charm offensive.
