A New Monroe Doctrine

Call it the Biden Doctrine, if you like

After the June 4, 1961 summit in Vienna, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev judged President John F. Kennedy weak. Results: the Berlin Wall (August, 1961) and Cuban Missile Crisis (October, 1962).

After his brinkmanship, Khrushchev did remove Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba. In exchange Kennedy removed U.S. missiles from Turkey and promised the U.S. would never again invade Cuba.

But Kennedy made that promise almost 60 years ago to a country, the Soviet Union, that dissolved over 30 years ago. Now it is Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China that have joined forces to destabilize democracies, undermine rule of law, and seed corruption wherever possible in the Americas and elsewhere.

Consider whether the U.S. should - at this moment of Putin’s brinkmanship in Ukraine and Xi’s in Hong Kong - retool the Monroe Doctrine to expose both Russian and Chinese activities in Latin America. Call it the Biden Doctrine, if you like. Not an invasion, but a focused social media campaign - hopefully echoed by the West’s free press, such as it is - to hammer both countries for the misery they have abetted in Cuba, and also Nicaragua and Venezuela.

This Biden Doctrine could generally attack how Russia and China have successfully captured post-WWII international institutions. Both exercise freedom of speech at the United Nations, can vote, and even wield veto power on the UN Security Council. But both should rather be happy with observer status at the UN - and all other international institutions - until they grant these rights to their own people.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.