John Kerry in Foreign Policy

On Foreign Policy: 2013: The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over

Even a decade ago, one might have assumed that Monroe's relevance in the 21st century had waned. It had become closely associated with U.S. Cold War interventions and unilateralism in the Americas. When then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry declared in 2013 that "the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over," the principle had become an anachronism.

Anticipating renewed great-power rivalry, this time with China, the seeming simplicity and persistence of the Monroe Doctrine mean that it has regained adherents in the US. Yet recent praise for the doctrine from within the Republican Party suggests only superficial understandings of the doctrine and its meanings in Latin America.