WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.640 Imagine declaring like a massive geopolitical 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:05.900 red line across an entire hemisphere. Right. 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:07.860 Just drawing a line straight down the map. Exactly. 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:10.560 You are looking the most powerful, heavily armed 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:13.419 empires in the world. dead in the eye and you're 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:15.900 telling them to stay out of your half of the 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:18.059 globe. Which is a bold move. It's an insanely 00:00:18.059 --> 00:00:20.039 bold move. Especially when you consider they 00:00:20.039 --> 00:00:21.660 did all of this when they didn't even have a 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:24.260 functioning army or like a credible Navy to defend 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:26.820 that line. Yeah it sounds like absolute Jew political 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:29.820 suicide. But in 1823 the United States did exactly 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:33.119 that. So welcome to the deep dive. Today we've 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:36.119 got a massive stack of historical research government 00:00:36.119 --> 00:00:39.200 documents and modern news reports to explore. 00:00:40.219 --> 00:00:42.539 The Monroe Doctrine, which is arguably the most 00:00:42.539 --> 00:00:44.820 resilient, continuously cited foreign policy 00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:46.780 statement in American history. Yeah. And our 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:49.399 mission for you, our listener, is to really understand 00:00:49.399 --> 00:00:53.420 how a single 200 year old statement. evolved 00:00:53.420 --> 00:00:56.719 from a defensive, almost laughable bluff into 00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:59.560 this highly controversial justification for global 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:02.299 dominance. And, well, more importantly, we're 00:01:02.299 --> 00:01:04.420 going to break down exactly why this centuries 00:01:04.420 --> 00:01:07.519 -old concept is completely dominating the geopolitical 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:10.840 headlines right now in 2026. Right. Think of 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:13.400 it like installing a base operating system on 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:17.540 a computer. In 1823, the code was incredibly 00:01:17.540 --> 00:01:21.540 simple. But over two centuries, that same base 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:24.400 code has received rogue patches, hidden updates, 00:01:24.739 --> 00:01:26.939 total rewrites from completely different developers 00:01:26.939 --> 00:01:29.120 until it's suddenly running a massive global 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:31.879 security apparatus. I love that analogy. It's 00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:34.640 a phenomenal case study in how political language 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:37.599 mutates over time. because when President James 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:40.000 Monroe actually gave the speech in 1823. During 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:41.560 his State of the Union, right? Yeah, his seventh 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:43.579 annual State of the Union address. But it wasn't 00:01:43.579 --> 00:01:46.280 even called a doctrine. That label wasn't attached 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.060 to it until decades later, like around the 1850s. 00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:51.579 Oh, wow. At the time, it wasn't some grand overarching 00:01:51.579 --> 00:01:54.239 strategy for the United States. It was a highly 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:56.579 situational reaction to the geopolitics of the 00:01:56.579 --> 00:01:59.379 post -Napoleonic world. How does a simple speech 00:01:59.379 --> 00:02:02.379 given in the 1800s balloon into a globalism or 00:02:02.379 --> 00:02:04.939 doctrine? Because looking at the sources, Monroe 00:02:04.939 --> 00:02:06.700 didn't even write the core of it himself, did 00:02:06.700 --> 00:02:09.379 he? No, he didn't. It was drafted chiefly by 00:02:09.379 --> 00:02:12.139 his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams. The 00:02:12.139 --> 00:02:14.560 real architect behind the language. Exactly. 00:02:15.139 --> 00:02:18.560 Adams couched it in very dense diplomatic terms. 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:21.039 But the core message was essentially drawing 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.599 a boundary between two distinct spheres. He declared 00:02:24.599 --> 00:02:27.379 that the New World, meaning the Americas, and 00:02:27.379 --> 00:02:30.159 the old world of Europe were fundamentally different. 00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:33.259 Like completely separate ecosystems. Right. And 00:02:33.259 --> 00:02:35.659 he said the Americas were no longer subject to 00:02:35.659 --> 00:02:38.330 future colonization. by any European powers. 00:02:38.969 --> 00:02:41.469 If Europe tried to control or oppress the newly 00:02:41.469 --> 00:02:44.150 independent Spanish -American republics, the 00:02:44.150 --> 00:02:47.069 US would view it as a hostile act. And in exchange? 00:02:47.169 --> 00:02:49.650 In exchange, the US promised to stay completely 00:02:49.650 --> 00:02:52.169 out of Europe's internal conflicts. I mean, I 00:02:52.169 --> 00:02:53.949 can't imagine the European heavyweights took 00:02:53.949 --> 00:02:56.509 kindly to a fledgling nation, telling them where 00:02:56.509 --> 00:02:58.210 they could and couldn't build their empires. 00:02:58.389 --> 00:03:01.569 Oh, they were furious. Prince Metternich of Austria, 00:03:01.610 --> 00:03:03.770 who was essentially the master chess player of 00:03:03.770 --> 00:03:06.819 European diplomacy at the time, called the Declaration 00:03:06.819 --> 00:03:10.099 a new act of revolt by the United States. A new 00:03:10.099 --> 00:03:12.919 act of revolt? Yeah, he believed it would embolden 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:15.180 conspirators and revolutionaries everywhere. 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:17.000 Okay, let's unpack this because this is where 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.439 I get completely stuck on the logic. You have 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:23.080 the 1823 United States drawing this line, but 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:25.300 they had just had their capital city burned to 00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:28.240 the ground by the British during the War of 1812 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:30.419 a few years prior. Just a few years before, yeah. 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.979 Their standing army is practically non -existent. 00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:36.639 Their navy is tiny. It's like a scrawny kid drawing 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:38.960 a line in the sand against a bunch of heavyweights. 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:42.039 If they couldn't actually defend this line they 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:44.379 just grew from Alaska down to Tierra del Fuego. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.300 How did they get away with it? Why didn't Europe 00:03:47.300 --> 00:03:49.000 just call the bluff and march right over them? 00:03:49.129 --> 00:03:51.150 What's fascinating here is that they got away 00:03:51.150 --> 00:03:53.909 with it because of a massive historical irony. 00:03:54.530 --> 00:03:56.669 The Monroe Doctrine was, for its first several 00:03:56.669 --> 00:03:59.129 decades, actually enforced by the British Royal 00:03:59.129 --> 00:04:01.669 Navy. Wait, what? You're telling me the British 00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:05.449 Royal Navy enforced an American policy? The same 00:04:05.449 --> 00:04:08.189 British Empire the U .S. had literally just fought 00:04:08.189 --> 00:04:10.930 a war against. The very same. Why on earth would 00:04:10.930 --> 00:04:13.199 Britain help the U .S. keep your about? Well, 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:15.159 it wasn't about helping the United States at 00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:17.459 all. It was entirely about serving Britain's 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:20.620 own economic interests. After the Napoleonic 00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:22.620 Wars, Broughton was establishing what we call 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:25.339 the Pax Britannica, this period of relative peace 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:29.139 where Britain was the undisputed global hegemon. 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.779 Right. But more importantly, they were rapidly 00:04:31.779 --> 00:04:34.100 industrializing. They had factories churning 00:04:34.100 --> 00:04:37.279 out goods and they desperately needed open markets 00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:39.819 to sell those goods. And Latin America was suddenly 00:04:39.819 --> 00:04:41.920 a massive new market because they were declaring 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:44.639 independence. from Spain. Exactly. But if Spain 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:47.420 managed to recapture its colonies in Latin America, 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:50.360 Spain would immediately reimpose mercantilist 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:53.600 policies. Mercantilism being like a closed loop 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:56.540 economy. Precisely. If Spain controls the colony, 00:04:56.800 --> 00:04:59.079 the colony is only legally allowed to trade with 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:01.670 Spain. They slammed the door shut on outside 00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:04.170 trade, hoarding all the resources and profits 00:05:04.170 --> 00:05:06.470 for the Spanish crown. Britain could not afford 00:05:06.470 --> 00:05:09.170 to lose that market. So Britain wanted Latin 00:05:09.170 --> 00:05:11.290 America to remain independent just as much as 00:05:11.290 --> 00:05:14.970 the U .S. did. Yes. But for purely economic free 00:05:14.970 --> 00:05:18.009 trade reasons, they tacitly supported the American 00:05:18.009 --> 00:05:20.689 declaration because the Royal Navy was already 00:05:20.689 --> 00:05:23.850 in the Atlantic, making sure Spain couldn't send 00:05:23.850 --> 00:05:26.129 massive armadas to take their colonies back. 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:28.750 So the U .S. is the scrawny kid drawing the line 00:05:28.750 --> 00:05:30.779 in the But the biggest guy on the playground, 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:32.759 the British Empire, is standing right behind 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:36.319 him, quietly nodding. That's exactly it. And 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:38.300 the leaders of these newly independent Latin 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:40.639 American nations understood this power dynamic 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:43.629 perfectly. The sources feature figures like Simon 00:05:43.629 --> 00:05:45.670 Bolivar, the great liberator of South America. 00:05:45.709 --> 00:05:48.069 Right, very famous figure. Bolivar was a realist. 00:05:48.310 --> 00:05:50.910 He received Monroe's speech with gratitude, sure, 00:05:50.910 --> 00:05:53.529 but he knew the U .S. president wielded very 00:05:53.529 --> 00:05:56.589 little actual power to protect him. He knew full 00:05:56.589 --> 00:05:59.230 well that his continued independence relied heavily 00:05:59.230 --> 00:06:01.949 on the British Navy. Wow. In fact, Bolivar saw 00:06:01.949 --> 00:06:04.350 the doctrine as nothing more than a tool of U 00:06:04.350 --> 00:06:07.290 .S. national policy, not some genuine altruistic 00:06:07.290 --> 00:06:10.430 charter for a hemispheric corporation. But relying 00:06:10.430 --> 00:06:12.600 on the British Navy was never going to be a permanent 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:14.759 solution for the United States, right? I mean, 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:18.019 by the time we hit the late 1800s, the US has 00:06:18.019 --> 00:06:20.120 undergone a massive industrial revolution of 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:22.259 its own. Oh, absolutely. They have steel. They 00:06:22.259 --> 00:06:24.360 have a booming economy. And they're building 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:29.040 a world class Navy. And that new muscle completely 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:31.040 changes how they use the doctrine. It's no longer 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:34.259 a defensive shield. It becomes an offensive weapon. 00:06:34.579 --> 00:06:37.089 That is the crucial pivot. The sources highlight 00:06:37.089 --> 00:06:39.970 the Venezuelan crisis of 1895 as the turning 00:06:39.970 --> 00:06:43.250 point. Venezuela had a border dispute with Britain 00:06:43.250 --> 00:06:46.550 over a territory called Essequibo. Venezuela 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:49.430 essentially hired a former U .S. ambassador to 00:06:49.430 --> 00:06:51.949 argue that Britain's land grab was violating 00:06:51.949 --> 00:06:54.110 the Monroe Doctrine. And the U .S. actually steps 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:56.850 in, but this time with real leverage. Secretary 00:06:56.850 --> 00:06:58.750 of State Richard Olney sends a note to Britain 00:06:58.750 --> 00:07:01.750 claiming that the United States is, quote, practically 00:07:01.750 --> 00:07:04.589 sovereign on this continent and that its fiat 00:07:04.589 --> 00:07:08.209 is law. Which is a staggering assertion of dominance 00:07:08.209 --> 00:07:10.910 over an entire hemisphere. It is known as the 00:07:10.910 --> 00:07:13.990 Olney corollary. Britain initially scoffed at 00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:16.050 it, but because they were preoccupied with rising 00:07:16.050 --> 00:07:18.550 tensions in Europe, they eventually backed down 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:20.670 and agreed to arbitration. So they essentially 00:07:20.670 --> 00:07:23.689 folded. They did. And historians view this as 00:07:23.689 --> 00:07:26.790 a massive tacit concession to U .S. dominance 00:07:26.790 --> 00:07:29.269 in the Americas. But the real shift, the moment 00:07:29.269 --> 00:07:31.910 the underlying logic of the doctrine flips completely 00:07:31.910 --> 00:07:35.060 on its head, happens a few years later with President 00:07:35.060 --> 00:07:39.060 Theodore Roosevelt. Yes, the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary. 00:07:39.230 --> 00:07:41.910 To understand why Roosevelt did this, you have 00:07:41.910 --> 00:07:44.189 to look at how global finance worked at the time. 00:07:44.529 --> 00:07:47.589 In the early 1900s, several Latin American countries 00:07:47.589 --> 00:07:50.029 had taken on massive foreign debts from European 00:07:50.029 --> 00:07:52.230 banks to build railroads and infrastructure. 00:07:52.410 --> 00:07:55.170 What huge national loans. Exactly. And when countries 00:07:55.170 --> 00:07:57.709 like Venezuela defaulted on those loans, European 00:07:57.709 --> 00:08:00.589 powers, meaning Britain, Germany, Italy, they 00:08:00.589 --> 00:08:03.009 actually sent warships to blockade their ports 00:08:03.009 --> 00:08:05.569 to force repayment. Which prompts Argentina's 00:08:05.569 --> 00:08:08.649 foreign minister, Luis Maria Drago, to step in. 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:12.720 He announces the Drago Doctrine. He argues that 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.600 no European power should be allowed to use military 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:18.899 force against an American nation just to collect 00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:21.629 the financial debt. Right. Which sounds completely 00:08:21.629 --> 00:08:23.550 aligned with the original Monroe Doctrine, right? 00:08:24.089 --> 00:08:26.870 Keep Europe's military out of the Americas. You 00:08:26.870 --> 00:08:28.970 would absolutely think so. It seems like a natural 00:08:28.970 --> 00:08:31.670 extension of keeping Europe out. But Roosevelt 00:08:31.670 --> 00:08:34.750 explicitly rejected the Drago Doctrine. Wait, 00:08:34.750 --> 00:08:37.149 why? If the whole point is keeping European warships 00:08:37.149 --> 00:08:39.950 away, why not support Argentina's position? Because 00:08:39.950 --> 00:08:42.289 Roosevelt looked at the mechanics of the situation. 00:08:42.730 --> 00:08:44.850 He reasoned that if Latin American countries 00:08:44.850 --> 00:08:47.450 defaulted on their debts and Europe wasn't allowed 00:08:47.450 --> 00:08:49.820 to collect, Europe would eventually just invade 00:08:49.820 --> 00:08:51.820 and take over the territory as payment. Oh, I 00:08:51.820 --> 00:08:54.100 see. To Roosevelt, the only way to permanently 00:08:54.100 --> 00:08:56.080 keep Europe out was to ensure the debts were 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:59.159 paid. So he added his own corollary to the Monroe 00:08:59.159 --> 00:09:02.200 Doctrine. He asserted that in cases of flagrant 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:04.940 and chronic wrongdoing or economic impotence 00:09:04.940 --> 00:09:07.779 by a Latin American nation, the United States 00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:10.419 had the right to intervene preemptively. Preemptively. 00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:14.409 Yes. The U .S. would step in, act as an international 00:09:14.409 --> 00:09:17.549 police power and fix the local economy to keep 00:09:17.549 --> 00:09:20.389 European creditors away. This is the birth of 00:09:20.389 --> 00:09:22.950 the big stick ideology. I want to use an analogy 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:25.750 here because the logic is so twisted. It's like 00:09:25.750 --> 00:09:28.629 your local neighborhood watch program suddenly 00:09:28.629 --> 00:09:31.649 deciding that to keep burglars out of the neighborhood, 00:09:31.909 --> 00:09:34.129 they have the authority to kick down your door, 00:09:34.610 --> 00:09:36.830 occupy your living room and forcibly audit your 00:09:36.830 --> 00:09:39.409 taxes just to make sure the bank doesn't foreclose 00:09:39.409 --> 00:09:41.500 on your house and sell it to a stranger. That 00:09:41.500 --> 00:09:43.940 is an incredibly accurate comparison, especially 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:45.960 when you look at how the U .S. executed this 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:48.840 policy. It wasn't just diplomatic pressure. The 00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:51.840 sources detail long term U .S. Marine occupations 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:54.639 in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:57.559 And how did taking over a country actually pay 00:09:57.559 --> 00:09:59.740 off a debt to a European bank? Like what were 00:09:59.740 --> 00:10:01.460 the Marines actually doing? They were taking 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:04.000 over the customs houses in the early 20th century 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:07.120 before widespread income taxes. The primary way 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:09.240 a government made money was through customs duties, 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:12.000 tariffs on import. and exported goods at the 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.840 ports. By physically occupying the customs houses, 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:17.759 the U .S. military controlled the country's national 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:20.039 bank account. They would collect the tariffs, 00:10:20.539 --> 00:10:22.659 slice off a percentage to pay the European banks, 00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:24.659 and then give the rest to the local government 00:10:24.659 --> 00:10:27.220 to run the country. But doesn't that completely 00:10:27.220 --> 00:10:30.360 contradict the original spirit of Monroe's 1823 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:33.299 speech? I mean, the original was about keeping 00:10:33.299 --> 00:10:35.720 empires out, but this sounds like building one. 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:38.639 If we connect this to the bigger picture, scholars 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:41.700 broadly agree with you. They call this era the 00:10:41.700 --> 00:10:44.259 start of the American liberal empire. The US 00:10:44.259 --> 00:10:46.840 effectively appointed itself the unchallengeable 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:49.759 hemispheric policeman. And the irony is that 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:51.879 even the US government eventually recognized 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:54.120 how far they had strayed from the original code. 00:10:54.539 --> 00:10:58.019 In 1928, a U .S. Undersecretary of State wrote 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:01.200 the Clark Memorandum. It was essentially a panicked 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.860 attempt to backpedal. How do you backpedal military 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:07.240 occupation? By arguing a technicality. The memorandum 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:09.360 argued that Roosevelt's military interventions 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:11.639 weren't actually justified by the Monroe Doctrine 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:14.039 at all, but were instead based on the United 00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:16.740 States' own inherent state rights to self -defense. 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:20.110 Wow, parsing words. Very much so. They tried 00:11:20.110 --> 00:11:22.450 to artificially separate Roosevelt's aggressive 00:11:22.450 --> 00:11:25.629 actions from Monroe's original intent, acknowledging 00:11:25.629 --> 00:11:28.190 that Monroe was only ever talking about conflicts 00:11:28.190 --> 00:11:31.250 between the U .S. and Europe, not the U .S. dominating 00:11:31.250 --> 00:11:33.970 its southern neighbors. But you can't unring 00:11:33.970 --> 00:11:36.629 that bell. The precedent of intervention was 00:11:36.629 --> 00:11:39.509 firmly set. And as we move into the mid 20th 00:11:39.509 --> 00:11:42.090 century, the justification for kicking down the 00:11:42.090 --> 00:11:44.870 door shifts once again. We've gone from stopping 00:11:44.870 --> 00:11:48.149 monarchs to collecting debts. After World War 00:11:48.149 --> 00:11:51.110 Two, the new boogeyman becomes entirely ideological. 00:11:51.389 --> 00:11:53.730 Right. Following a brief period in the 1930s 00:11:53.730 --> 00:11:55.909 where Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted a good 00:11:55.909 --> 00:11:58.889 neighbor policy of non -intervention, the geopolitical 00:11:58.889 --> 00:12:01.110 landscape fractured with the onset of the Cold 00:12:01.110 --> 00:12:03.230 War. Right. The U .S. versus the Soviet Union. 00:12:03.549 --> 00:12:06.110 Exactly. And the Monroe Doctrine was radically 00:12:06.110 --> 00:12:08.690 repurposed to justify fighting Soviet communism 00:12:08.690 --> 00:12:10.649 anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. We see this 00:12:10.649 --> 00:12:12.850 applied really aggressively. Secretary of State 00:12:12.850 --> 00:12:16.070 John Foster Dulles explicitly invokes the doctrine 00:12:16.070 --> 00:12:19.750 in 1954 to denounce what he called Soviet intervention 00:12:19.750 --> 00:12:22.929 in Guatemala. Which directly led to a CIA -backed 00:12:22.929 --> 00:12:25.210 coup overthrowing the democratically elected 00:12:25.210 --> 00:12:27.730 president. Right. Then you have John F. Kennedy 00:12:27.730 --> 00:12:30.809 citing it during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis 00:12:30.809 --> 00:12:33.330 to oppose Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba. 00:12:33.710 --> 00:12:37.029 But I want to zero in on the 1980s, because this 00:12:37.029 --> 00:12:39.190 is where the definition of foreign interference 00:12:39.190 --> 00:12:41.389 gets stretched to its absolute breaking point. 00:12:41.590 --> 00:12:43.590 You're referring to Nicaragua and the Contras. 00:12:43.889 --> 00:12:47.169 Exactly. The CIA is covertly training and funding 00:12:47.169 --> 00:12:50.129 Contra guerrilla fighters in neighboring Honduras, 00:12:50.649 --> 00:12:53.750 specifically to overthrow the socialist Sandinista 00:12:53.750 --> 00:12:57.279 government inside Nicaragua. So what does this 00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:00.019 all mean? How does a doctrine aimed at stopping 00:13:00.019 --> 00:13:03.179 external European colonization get used to justify 00:13:03.179 --> 00:13:06.179 funding a domestic civil war? It's like a virus 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:08.539 mutating to survive in a new environment. It 00:13:08.539 --> 00:13:11.120 requires a highly elastic interpretation of the 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:13.539 world. During the Cold War, U .S. policymakers 00:13:13.539 --> 00:13:16.399 argued that international communism was a monolith 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:18.639 controlled entirely by Moscow. So there were 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:21.529 no local movements. According to them, no. Therefore, 00:13:21.649 --> 00:13:24.049 any local communist or socialist movement in 00:13:24.049 --> 00:13:26.690 Latin America was, by definition, an extension 00:13:26.690 --> 00:13:29.490 of Soviet power. It wasn't viewed as a domestic 00:13:29.490 --> 00:13:32.149 revolution. It was viewed as a foreign intrusion 00:13:32.149 --> 00:13:34.509 into the hemisphere. It's a huge leap. It was. 00:13:34.690 --> 00:13:37.529 And when the Contra operation faced heavy congressional 00:13:37.529 --> 00:13:40.970 scrutiny and public backlash, CIA Director Robert 00:13:40.970 --> 00:13:43.809 Gates vigorously defended the operation by stating 00:13:43.809 --> 00:13:46.190 that to abandon the Contras would be, quote, 00:13:46.529 --> 00:13:49.370 totally to abandon the Monroe Doctrine. But this 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:51.990 is exactly where the sharpest criticisms in our 00:13:51.990 --> 00:13:54.970 source material arise. Because at a certain point, 00:13:55.090 --> 00:13:58.049 the justification falls apart. We read prominent 00:13:58.049 --> 00:14:00.610 critics like Noam Chomsky, who argues that the 00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:03.710 doctrine in practice is nothing more than a formal 00:14:03.710 --> 00:14:06.120 decoration of hegemony. Right. And for those 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:08.080 listening who might be unfamiliar, hegemony isn't 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:10.879 just influence. It's unquestioned dominance, 00:14:11.059 --> 00:14:13.340 where one state is so powerful it dictates the 00:14:13.340 --> 00:14:15.460 political and economic rules for everyone else 00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:17.700 in the system. Tomsky views the doctrine as a 00:14:17.700 --> 00:14:20.100 blank check for the U .S. to exercise unilateral 00:14:20.100 --> 00:14:23.080 intervention over the Americas, completely bypassing 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:25.419 international law. But perhaps the most cutting 00:14:25.419 --> 00:14:27.460 description in our sources comes from historian 00:14:27.460 --> 00:14:29.679 William Appleman Williams. Oh, I remember this 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:31.799 quote. Yeah, he described this entire dynamic 00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:36.120 as imperial anti -colonialism. Imperial anti 00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:40.120 -colonialism. It is a brilliant, completely paradoxical 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:43.200 phrase. We are conquering you, occupying your 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:46.000 ports, and funding your civil wars solely to 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:48.019 protect you from being conquered by someone else. 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:50.360 It's the logic of empire masked in the language 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:53.259 of liberation. Now considering all this historical 00:14:53.259 --> 00:14:55.919 baggage, you know, the occupations, the coups, 00:14:55.980 --> 00:14:58.519 the shifting goalposts, you might assume that 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:01.039 a concept from 1823 would finally be retired 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:03.580 in the modern era. And it almost was. Yes, very 00:15:03.580 --> 00:15:06.740 nearly. In 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry 00:15:06.740 --> 00:15:08.820 stood in front of the Organization of American 00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:11.960 States and explicitly declared that the era of 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:14.759 the Monroe Doctrine is over. He called for a 00:15:14.759 --> 00:15:17.679 new era of mutual partnership and equality. But 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:19.740 the sources show that the doctrine didn't die. 00:15:19.899 --> 00:15:23.159 In the 2020s, it experienced a massive explosive 00:15:23.159 --> 00:15:25.580 revival. It did. And the implications of this 00:15:25.580 --> 00:15:27.539 revival are currently shaping global security 00:15:27.539 --> 00:15:31.139 right now in 2026. Right. And as we dive into 00:15:31.139 --> 00:15:33.080 the recent political events involving Donald 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:35.320 Trump, we want to make it crystal clear to you, 00:15:35.340 --> 00:15:38.620 our listener, that we are strictly neutral. We 00:15:38.620 --> 00:15:41.580 are not taking sides, nor are we endorsing any 00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:44.139 of the left -wing or right -wing viewpoints we 00:15:44.139 --> 00:15:46.539 are about to discuss. We are simply imparting 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:49.139 the factual content provided in our source material. 00:15:49.259 --> 00:15:51.220 And that context is vital because the source 00:15:51.220 --> 00:15:53.820 material presents a stark, undeniable shift in 00:15:53.820 --> 00:15:56.159 official U .S. policy. The Trump administration 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:59.919 explicitly and loudly revived the doctrine. In 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:03.200 2019, his national security adviser, John Bolton, 00:16:03.500 --> 00:16:05.419 publicly embraced the term, stating they were 00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:08.299 not afraid to use it. But the real escalation 00:16:08.299 --> 00:16:11.299 is detailed in the 2025 national security strategy. 00:16:11.460 --> 00:16:13.980 Yes. The text mentions the announcement of the 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:16.639 Trump corollary. What does that strategy document 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:19.549 actually say? It explicitly calls upon the United 00:16:19.549 --> 00:16:22.490 States to reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine 00:16:22.490 --> 00:16:25.210 to restore unquestioned U .S. preeminence in 00:16:25.210 --> 00:16:27.769 the Western Hemisphere. It actively moves to 00:16:27.769 --> 00:16:30.250 divide the world into spheres of influence. Meaning 00:16:30.250 --> 00:16:33.549 specific regions where one superpower has exclusive 00:16:33.549 --> 00:16:36.429 cultural, economic, and military sway. And this 00:16:36.429 --> 00:16:38.909 wasn't just campaign rhetoric. It was backed 00:16:38.909 --> 00:16:43.350 by immediate military posturing. In 2025, the 00:16:43.350 --> 00:16:45.370 U .S. launched massive naval deployments and 00:16:45.370 --> 00:16:48.169 military strikes against alleged drug boats in 00:16:48.169 --> 00:16:51.029 the Caribbean. Security experts speaking to Reuters 00:16:51.029 --> 00:16:54.649 in the BBC explicitly describe these maneuvers 00:16:54.649 --> 00:16:57.750 not as law enforcement, but as gunboat diplomacy, 00:16:58.129 --> 00:17:00.169 using the threat of overwhelming naval force 00:17:00.169 --> 00:17:02.529 to intimidate regional governments. Which culminates 00:17:02.529 --> 00:17:04.769 in the most dramatic event in our sources, the 00:17:04.769 --> 00:17:07.750 January 2026 capture of Venezuelan President 00:17:07.750 --> 00:17:10.809 Nicolas Maduro in a U .S. military raid. Yeah, 00:17:10.890 --> 00:17:12.650 following that raid, Donald Trump claimed the 00:17:12.650 --> 00:17:14.670 action was a direct application of this revived 00:17:14.670 --> 00:17:17.829 policy. He stylized it as the Donro doctrine, 00:17:17.910 --> 00:17:20.210 telling reporters that American dominance in 00:17:20.210 --> 00:17:21.890 the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned 00:17:21.890 --> 00:17:23.970 again. That's a staggering moment. Here's where 00:17:23.970 --> 00:17:25.990 it gets really interesting. If we go back to 00:17:25.990 --> 00:17:28.210 our software analogy from the beginning, this 00:17:28.210 --> 00:17:30.849 isn't just releasing a minor patch. This is taking 00:17:30.849 --> 00:17:34.390 a legacy software system from the 1904 Roosevelt 00:17:34.390 --> 00:17:38.150 era, blowing the dust off it, and forcefully 00:17:38.150 --> 00:17:41.490 rebooting it on modern hardware. Is this Don 00:17:41.490 --> 00:17:43.549 Roe doctrine a return to Theodore Roosevelt's 00:17:43.549 --> 00:17:46.230 big stick, or is it an entirely new beast given 00:17:46.230 --> 00:17:48.569 the context of modern rivals like China and Russia? 00:17:49.150 --> 00:17:51.630 This raises an important question, and the consensus 00:17:51.630 --> 00:17:53.710 among foreign policy experts and our sources 00:17:53.710 --> 00:17:55.990 is that it represents a fundamental paradigm 00:17:55.990 --> 00:17:58.710 shift in how the world operates. How so? Well, 00:17:58.769 --> 00:18:01.230 for the last 30 years, the global standard was 00:18:01.230 --> 00:18:03.289 multilateralism. You know, multiple countries 00:18:03.289 --> 00:18:05.109 working together through international laws, 00:18:05.390 --> 00:18:07.170 treaties, and institutions like the UN. Right, 00:18:07.269 --> 00:18:10.359 everybody at the table. Exactly. But by explicitly 00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:12.859 claiming a hemisphere under the Donrow Doctrine, 00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:15.920 the U .S. is signaling the death of multilateralism. 00:18:16.339 --> 00:18:18.859 It is a return to a world openly carved into 00:18:18.859 --> 00:18:21.799 defined spheres of influence, essentially acknowledging 00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:24.599 a divided globe managed unilaterally by the U 00:18:24.599 --> 00:18:27.839 .S., Russia and China. It is taking the implicit, 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:30.680 quiet dominance of the 20th century and making 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:34.400 it the explicit foundational law of 21st century 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:37.420 American strategy. It is incredible to step back 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:40.619 and look at the entire 200 -year arc. We started 00:18:40.619 --> 00:18:44.500 in 1823 with a scrawny nation making a massive 00:18:44.500 --> 00:18:46.900 bluff that only worked because the British Royal 00:18:46.900 --> 00:18:49.440 Navy wanted free trade. Right. Then we watched 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:52.339 that bluff morph into Roosevelt's big stick to 00:18:52.339 --> 00:18:55.259 audit Latin American customs houses. We saw it 00:18:55.259 --> 00:18:57.880 mutate into a Cold War justification for CIA 00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:01.119 covert operations in Nicaragua. And now we arrive 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:04.250 at the 2026 Donro doctrine. complete with Caribbean 00:19:04.250 --> 00:19:06.170 naval deployments and presidential captures. 00:19:06.289 --> 00:19:08.490 It's quite the journey. It is. And this is exactly 00:19:08.490 --> 00:19:10.970 why understanding this history is the ultimate 00:19:10.970 --> 00:19:13.089 shortcut to deciphering today's geopolitical 00:19:13.089 --> 00:19:15.410 headlines. When you read about a diplomatic spat 00:19:15.410 --> 00:19:17.410 over Chinese infrastructure in South America 00:19:17.410 --> 00:19:19.829 or naval deployments in the Caribbean, you aren't 00:19:19.829 --> 00:19:22.150 just looking at isolated incidents. You are watching 00:19:22.150 --> 00:19:25.009 a 200 -year -old operating system executing its 00:19:25.009 --> 00:19:27.589 latest code in real time. It proves how a single 00:19:27.589 --> 00:19:29.730 idea can be infinitely stretched to shape the 00:19:29.730 --> 00:19:33.240 modern world. But there is one final fascinating 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:35.160 reality from the source material to consider 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:38.220 before we wrap up. We've talked exclusively about 00:19:38.220 --> 00:19:41.099 the Monroe Doctrine as an American concept, but 00:19:41.099 --> 00:19:43.380 what if it isn't anymore? Wait, what do you mean? 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:45.740 Deep in the history of the Pacific, there is 00:19:45.740 --> 00:19:48.799 a concept known as the Australasian Monroe Doctrine. 00:19:49.319 --> 00:19:52.680 Really? Yes. In the early 1900s, Australian leaders 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:55.619 used this exact phrasing to oppose threatening 00:19:55.619 --> 00:19:58.619 powers from entering the Pacific Islands. And 00:19:58.619 --> 00:20:01.140 commentators in the 2020s have aggressively revived 00:20:01.140 --> 00:20:03.579 the term to combat China's growing influence 00:20:03.579 --> 00:20:06.079 in the region. Australia is essentially claiming 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:08.740 its own hemisphere. Oh, wow. It forces us to 00:20:08.740 --> 00:20:12.140 ask if every rising regional power decides to 00:20:12.140 --> 00:20:14.059 claim their own hemisphere and apply their own 00:20:14.059 --> 00:20:16.519 version of Monroe Doctrine, where do the lines 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:17.440 finally get drawn?