U.S. Strategy Reasserts Monroe Doctrine, Shifts Military Focus to the Americas

Overview

• The newly published National Security Strategy sets restoring U.S. preeminence in the Western Hemisphere as an explicit goal and reaffirms the Monroe Doctrine.
• The plan orders a readjustment of global force posture toward Latin America and the Caribbean with expanded Navy and Coast Guard operations and new access to strategic locations.
• Targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat drug cartels may use lethal force when deemed necessary rather than rely solely on policing approaches.
• The document tasks U.S. intelligence, including the CIA, with identifying strategic sites and resources for protection and joint development with regional partners.
• Economic statecraft seeks to make the U.S. the partner of choice through supplier-preference contracting, resistance to measures viewed as harming American firms, and efforts to displace rival foreign companies, as regional unease grows following recent Caribbean movements and tensions with Venezuela.