- World
- Jan 06
What is Monroe Doctrine?
• After the US military captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump referenced the Monroe Doctrine, a maxim that has shaped American foreign policy for two centuries.
• The doctrine formulated by former US President James Monroe was originally aimed at opposing European meddling in the Western hemisphere.
• It has since been invoked repeatedly by subsequent presidents angling to justify US intervention in the region.
• Trump now calls the aggressive foreign policy the “Donroe Doctrine”.
• The consequential doctrine of America’s fifth President was cited by the 47th President as partial justification for the capture of a foreign leader to face criminal charges in the US.
What is Monroe Doctrine?
• On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe proclaimed before the United States Congress what is today known as the “Monroe Doctrine”.
• It is a policy that rejects foreign interference of faraway nations and asserts US leadership in the Western hemisphere.
• The European powers, according to Monroe, were obligated to respect the Western hemisphere as the United States’ sphere of interest.
• It warned European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western hemisphere.
• The doctrine was conceived to meet major concerns of the moment, but it became a watchword of US policy in the Western hemisphere.
• The Monroe Doctrine was invoked in 1865 when the US government exerted diplomatic and military pressure in support of the Mexican President Benito Juarez.
• This support enabled Juarez to lead a successful revolt against the Emperor Maximilian, who had been placed on the throne by the French government.
• In 1904, European creditors of a number of Latin American countries threatened armed intervention to collect debts.
• President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the right of the United States to exercise an “international police power” to curb such “chronic wrongdoing”, in his so-called ‘Roosevelt Corollary’, or an extension, to the Monroe Doctrine.
• US Marines were sent into Santo Domingo in 1904, Nicaragua in 1911, and Haiti in 1915, ostensibly to keep the Europeans out.
• Other Latin American nations viewed these interventions with misgiving, and relations remained strained for many years.
• In 1962, the Monroe Doctrine was invoked symbolically when the Soviet Union began to build missile-launching sites in Cuba.
• With the support of the Organisation of American States, President John F. Kennedy threw a naval and air quarantine around the island.
• After several tense days, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw the missiles and dismantle the sites.
• Subsequently, the United States dismantled several of its obsolete air and missile bases in Turkey.
Trump renews push to annex Greenland
• Trump called repeatedly during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for US jurisdiction over Greenland, a vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, and has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island.
• Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States.
• In August 2025, Danish officials summoned the US ambassador following a report that at least three people with connections to Trump had carried out covert influence operations in Greenland.
• In December 2025, Trump appointed Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland.
• Landry has publicly expressed support for incorporating Greenland into the United States.
• Greenland’s strategic location between Europe and North America makes it a critical site for the US ballistic missile defence system.
• The island’s significant mineral resources also align with Washington’s ambition to reduce dependence on Chinese exports.
• Denmark and Greenland have said the island is not for sale and condemned reports of the US gathering intelligence there.
• The US push for Greenland is also opposed by Russia and much of Europe.