Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T17:40:29.582Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

US Defense Policy for the Western Hemisphere: New Wine in Old Bottles, Old Wine in New Bottles, or Something Completely Different?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Paul G. Buchanan
Paul G. Buchanan*
Affiliation:
New College of the University of South Florida
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The modern US defense role in the Western Hemisphere is framed by the terms of the 1947 Rio Treaty, the 1948 Charter of the Organization of America States (OAS), and subsequent bilateral and multilateral protocols like that creating the 1982 Regional Security System (RSS) in the Eastern Caribbean. As components of a collective security system that was explicitly anti-communist in design and intention, the Rio Treaty and its successor documents were established to combat threats posed either by direct aggression on the part of the Soviet Union and/or of Soviet-sponsored, Marxist-Leninist infiltration in the region. These represented the mainstay of the US-Latin American strategic alliance for over 40 years. Most importantly, the orientation of the Inter-American Defense System (IADS) fostered the notion that, within the embrace of the US strategic nuclear and conventional umbrella, military threats to the Western Hemisphere would originate primarily from within, aided and abetted from abroad by the communist alliance. This belief in, and fear of, internal enemies became an enduring theme in modern Latin American geopolitical thought, even when sharing space with traditional external defense concerns (Child, 1985).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , Spring 1996 , pp. 1 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barros, R. (1986) “The Left and Democracy: Recent Debates in Latin America. TELOS 68 (Summer): 49–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blasier, C. (1985) The Hovering Giant. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Bradford, D. Lt.C. (1994) “The Southern Theater: US Interests Still Matter Here.” Strategic Review (Winter): 43–50.Google Scholar
Brown, C. (ed.) (1985) With Friends Like These. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Buchanan, P. (1995) State, Labor, Capital: Democratizing Class Relations in the Southern Cone. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, P. and Jaramillo, M-L. (1994) “US Defense Policy for the Western Hemisphere.” North-South 4, 1 (July-August): 4-9. [Published by North-South Center, Coral Gables (FL)].Google Scholar
Castañeda, J. (1994) Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Child, J. (1985) Geopolitics and Conflict in South America:Quarrels among Neighbors. New York, NY: Greenwood Press (Praeger Publishers).Google Scholar
Huntington, S. (1991) The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, J. (1979) “Dictatorships and Double Standards.” Commentary 68, 5 (November): 34–45.Google Scholar
Kjonnerod, L. E. (ed.) (1992) Evolving US Strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington, DC: National Defense University.Google Scholar
Krepon, M., McCoy, D., and Rudolph, N. C. J. (eds) A Handbook of Confidence-Building Measures for Regional Security (Handbook No. 1; September). Washington, DC: The Henry L. Stimson Center.Google Scholar
Lake, A. (1993) “From Containment to Enlargement.” Speech delivered by National Security Advisor Anthony Lake to the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS); Johns Hopkins University, Washington (DC); 21 September.Google Scholar
Layne, C. (1994) “Kant or Cant: The Myth of the Democratic Peace.” International Security 19, 2 (Fall): 5–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcella, G. (1994) “Forging New Strategic Relationships.” Military Review Vol? No? (October): 31-42.Google Scholar
Newfarmer, R. (ed.) (1984) From Gunboats to Diplomacy. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) (1975) Argentina: In the Hour of the Furnaces. New York, NY; Berkeley.CA: NACLA.Google Scholar
Patino Mayer, H. (1993) “Support for a New Concept of Hemispheric Security: Cooperative Security” (17 May; OEA/Ser.g. CE/SH-12/93; rev. 1). Washington, DC: Organization of American States.Google Scholar
Perry, W. (1995) United States Security Strategy for the Americas (by Secretary of Defense William Perry; September). Washington, DC: US Department of Defense, Office of International Security Affairs.Google Scholar
Pion-Berlin, D. (1989) “Latin American National Security Doctrines: Hard and Soft Themes.” Armed Forces and Society 15, 3 (Spring): 411–430.Google Scholar
Schulz, D. and Marcella, G. (1992) Latin America: The Unfinished Business of Security. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College.Google Scholar
Smith, J. (1994) “The Brazilian Military Ideology: Implications for Institutionalized Democracy.” MA thesis; Department of Latin American Studies, University of Arizona (Tucson).Google Scholar
Snyder, J. and Mansfield, E. (forthcoming) “The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Democratization as a Cause of War.” International Security.Google Scholar
Spiro, D. (1994) “The Insignificance of the Liberal Peace.” International Security 19, 2 (Fall): 50–86.Google Scholar
United States. Department of Defense. (US-DOD) (1995) “Regional Security Strategy for Latin America” (draft version, April). Washington, DC: Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Inter-American Affairs).Google Scholar
United States. National Security Council (US-NSC) (1994) “A National Security Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement” (July). Washington, DC: USNSC.Google Scholar