Article in GJIA

The two hundredth anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine provides an opportunity to make a somewhat contrarian point: U.S.-Latin American relations are not as unidirectional as commonly suggested. Though the international relations of the Americas have been characterized by the power disparity between the United States and its neighbors, it is misleading to imply that U.S. dominance equated to unilateral determination of inter-American relations since 1823. On one hand, the United States’ history of interventions, browbeating, and heavy-handedness is well known. Undoubtedly, asymmetry has played a significant role in shaping identities, interests, and designs of states in the Western Hemisphere. However, on the other hand, the disparity of power should not be understood as directly determining outcomes: the powerful state has not always prevailed; the weak have not always cowered. Instead, smaller states in the region have contested, cooperated, and co-constituted tin their relationships. In this piece, we aim to emphasize how Latin America has found spaces to pursue its interests in the interstices of asymmetry. Meanwhile, the United States has often fallen into an “insecurity dilemma,” exaggerating threats despite its position of much greater power and responding in ways that complicate cooperation.