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February 04, 2005
An update to the Monroe Doctrine (North American version)
Latin Americans were not the only one to see a reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine in George W. Bush's second inaugural speech. A quite acid critique can be found in a Tom Wolfe Op-ed piece in the New York Times.
Wolfe, draws a brief history of the Doctrine (1823: the U.S. has a right to block Europeans from the Western hemisphere) and its three "corollaries" between 1904 and 1950.
The US have the right to shape up any nation of the Hemisphere guilty of wrong doing and powerless in front of Europe; the right to prevent a non hemispheric government to get practical power of control over an hemispheric one (by buying land in great quantity for instance); the affirmation that Communism was only a tool of Soviet appetite.
Since the last corollary attributed to diplomat George Kennan, the world and distances have shrunk. Anti ballistic missiles, jets, satellite phones, and the internet have done the job.
The consequence, according to Wolfe is that:
By Mr. Bush's Inauguration Day, the Hemi in Hemisphere had long since vanished, leaving the Monroe Doctrine with - what? - nothing but a single sphere ... which is to say, the entire world.
"America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," President Bush said. He added, "From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth."David Gelernter, the scientist and writer, argues that "Americanism" is a fundamentally religious notion shared by an incredibly varied population from every part of the globe and every conceivable background, all of whom feel that they have arrived, as Ronald Reagan put it, at a "shining city upon a hill." God knows how many of them just might agree with President Bush - and Theodore Roosevelt - that it is America's destiny and duty to bring that salvation to all mankind.
In those years, Wolfe argues, the logic that was the base of the Monroe Doctrine (the separation of the Americas from the rest of the world) loses its raison d'être while the rest of the world is discovering what the Monroe Doctrine really means.
Will it react like Latin America?
Posted February 4, 2005 11:34 PM
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