Down Below the Borderline: The Monroe Doctrine

In 1823, US President James Monroe declared an end to European colonial ambitions in the Americas. By the end of that century, his declaration had morphed into a license for the United States to pursue unilateral political, economic and military actions across the Western Hemisphere.

This week, we examine the history of the Monroe Doctrine and the wider geospatial order of the Americas, and see how, even two centuries later, Latin America continues to tremble in the shadow of that fateful doctrine.

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Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – The ‘Whatever’ Doctrine

This week, I share an excellent 2022 essay by Nathan DuFord which builds on the closing themes of last week’s episode on the fascist imaginary; my thoughts on a rancid essay about Venezuela by ice-chewing ghoul Elliot Abrams; and some thoughts on the ongoing criminality of US murder strikes in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea courtesy of Demented Donny and Pete ‘Drinks His Coffee on the Rocks’ Hegseth. It’s all so lazy and stupid – but after twenty years of the GWoT, it’s not like we should expect anything better. Available now for Patreon supporters.

Sources:

Manuel de Campo (2019) ‘Splitting the world in two: the 525th anniversary of the Treaty of Tordesillas’, available at Languages across Borders: Language Collections at the University of Cambridge

Citations Needed Podcast (2021), ‘Episode 139 — Of Meat and Men: How Beef Became Synonymous with Settler-Colonial Domination’, available at Citations Needed (Transcript available at Medium)

John Gast (1872), ‘American Progress’ [Painting], available at The Library of Congress

Greg Grandin (2006), Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, The United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic

Greg Grandin (2019), The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

George C. Herring (2008), From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776

CLR James (1938), The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

Stephen Kinzer (2013), The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and their Secret World War

Lester D. Langley (2002), The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898–1934

Randall Lesaffer (2015), ‘The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)’, available at Oxford Public International Law

James Martell (2017), The Misinterpellated Subject

James Monroe (1823), ‘December 2, 1823: Seventh Annual Message (Monroe Doctrine)’, available at The Miller Center, University of Virginia

‘National Security of the United States of America’ (November 2025), available at The White House

James Polk (1845), ‘December 2, 1845: First Annual Message’, available at The Miller Center, University of Virginia

Theodore Roosevelt (1904), ‘Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1905)’, available at The US National Archives

Treaty of Ghent (1814), available at The US National Archives

Giles Tremlett (2020), ‘Operation Condor: the cold war conspiracy that terrorised South America’, available at The Guardian

Sylvia Wynter (2003), ‘Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation--An Argument’, CR: The New Centennial Review (Vol. 3:3)

Image: An official from the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) inspects bunches of bananas in preparation for export from Honduras. (AP Photo)