Much has been said about President Trump’s reverence for William McKinley, his predecessor in the White House who used tariffs to assert America’s mercantile supremacy.
Now it is another distinguished forerunner who is in the spotlight: James Monroe, fifth President of the United States and the man who, in 1823, proclaimed the so-called Monroe Doctrine.
This, in essence, was an attempt to deter European influence in the Americas, north and south while giving Washington freedom of action in what it saw as its own back yard.
To put it another way, the US was carving out a sphere of influence – in return for which it agreed not to interfere in Europe.
ames Monroe, fifth President of the United States, proclaimed the so-called Monroe Doctrine in 1823
The President and First Lady ring servicemen and women on Christmas Eve.
If there was a sense of reciprocity to it, the priority was clear: within its own ambit, America was free to pursue American interests.
Today, the echoes are unmistakable. Some commentators laugh when Trump talks of annexing Greenland or Canada becoming the 51st state, but the president is in deadly earnest. These landmasses are part of, or at least attached to, the American continent.
Just how serious he is about establishing a sphere of US influence can be seen Trump’s decision to intervene so directly in Venezuela, seizing oil tankers and cutting off a lucrative trade that supports the renegade Leftist – and very anti-American – regime in Caracas.
Indeed, the Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy, published last month, recognised formally that the US officially views Latin America as its back yard.
According to critics, the US is applying ‘gunboat diplomacy’ against Venezuela. Yet there are sound reasons for Washington’s approach, plus clear – and recent – parallels.
Collective security became the norm in the Americas all the way back in 1948 with the establishment of the Organisation of American States. Collective security means that nation states pledge mutual defence and treat an attack on one as an attack on all.
In the modern world, it is entirely reasonable to take cybercrime, terrorism, and drug trafficking as modern forms of warfare – -and Venezuela has been accused of sponsoring all these things.
And this is why the Trump administration is relying on using naval muscle to contain what is, in its view, a dangerous enemy.
Just how serious he is about establishing a sphere of US influence can be seen Trump’s decision to intervene so directly in Venezuela, seizing oil tankers and cutting off a lucrative trade that supports the renegade Leftist – and very anti-American – regime in Caracas
This assertive approach, it reasons, will brings more security and prosperity not just to the region, but to the world.
We only have to look east and see the destruction in blood and treasure caused by Russia’s interference in Ukraine. It is a clear threat to the well-being of all and must not be permitted. Europe is surely right to insist on collective security.
But if Europe is permitted to step in and oppose Russia – as it has been doing now for four years – what is to stop the US from doing the same in the Americas?
The wider point of Trump’s application of the Monroe Doctrine is to push its main geopolitical rival, China, from the region, of course. Washington is particularly keen to prevent two companies, COSCO Shipping Ports and Hutchison Ports, from operating the Panama canal – so vital for US shipping.
The first of these is a Chinese company. The other is Hong Kong-based.
President Donald Trump calls children as he participates in tracking Santa Claus’ movements with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve at Mar-a-Lago
Although its rivals DP World of Dubai and MAERSK of Denmark are by no means from the Americas, but Trump judges them to be free of Chinese influence and very much preferable as candidates.
There is nothing about the Monroe Doctrine that stops the US making exceptions when it suits. Practicality is all. Practicality is, in fact, the driving force.
Whatever the origins of NATO’s expansion in the east and Putin’s furious – and bloodthirsty – response, it is no longer possible for America to underwrite the collective security of Europe. Those days are gone.
Today, we are in a new world, where clusters of nations must be responsible for their own security.
The Monroe Doctrine will apply whether Europe likes it or not. It is the new reality.
