The Latinamericanization of American Foreign Policy

Abstract

The foreign policies of the George W. Bush administration, constructed by neo-conservative architects like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, have their ideological antecedents in United States policy toward Latin America. Although the neo-conservatives are not schooled in Latin American diplomatic history, the Bush Doctrine draws so extensively on previous Latin American policies and practices that it represents the Latin Americanization of American foreign policy. The neo-conservatives take inspiration from the policies and practices of Theodore Roosevelt, who applied his big stick policy preemptively in the Caribbean region. While the doctrine of preemption has its roots in the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, it goes beyond that policy by asserting a right to police not just Latin America, but Africa, the Middle East, and Asia as well. Unfortunately, the neo-conservatives ignored the nationalistic rebellions that American interventions produced in Latin America, exuding such confidence in their own moral superiority that they neglected obvious historical lessons from Latin America as well as the Middle East. They convinced themselves that the Iraqis would welcome American troops as liberators, apparently unaware that interventions in Latin America regularly produced militant and strongly nationalistic rebellions against United States occupation.