What is the Monroe Doctrine? Here's how it has shaped U.S. foreign policy for two centuries
Fortune••world
Key Points:
- The Monroe Doctrine, established in 1823 by President James Monroe, originally aimed to prevent European interference in the Western Hemisphere and has since been frequently used to justify U.S. interventions in Latin America.
- President Donald Trump recently invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify actions against Venezuela, including the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro, framing it as part of a "Trump Corollary" aimed at restoring American dominance in the region.
- Historically, the doctrine has been expanded through corollaries like Theodore Roosevelt’s in 1904, which justified U.S. interventions in Latin America to protect its strategic and commercial interests, a pattern Trump appears to be continuing.
- Trump’s national security strategy emphasizes reasserting U.S. power in the Western
