Heine’s Take on the “Donroe Doctrine”
Ishaan Tharoor’s column for the Washington Post titled The year of the ‘Donroe Doctrine’, published December 31, 2026, quoted Ambassador Jorge Heine reflecting on the Monroe Doctrine’s resurgence in contemporary United States’ relations to Latin America. The article argues that President Trump’s second-term Latin America policy, the so-called “Donroe Doctrine”, revives the language of the Monroe Doctrine to justify a more assertive and coercive U.S. role in the hemisphere. Framed as a defense of U.S. primacy and a pushback against China, the approach blends expansionist rhetoric, political interference, and militarized pressure, particularly toward Venezuela, marking a sharp departure from past U.S. strategies centered on democracy promotion or economic integration.
Heine, a veteran Chilean diplomat, offers a pointed critique of this logic. He highlights the irony that Latin America is being cast as a major security threat despite the fact that it “sees the least amount of terrorism in the world.” While he concedes that it is “very legitimate for the U.S. to say we would like to keep our primacy,” he argues that dominance cannot be sustained through coercion or nostalgia for 19th-century doctrines.
Instead, Heine stresses that U.S. influence must be earned through competition and investment—by helping build infrastructure, support development, and offer credible economic alternatives. China, now the leading trading partner for much of South America, has done precisely that. Attempting to reverse this reality, Heine warns, is futile. “The notion that you can hark back to 1823 is totally unrealistic,” Heine says. “The horse has left the barn. You can’t get China out of Latin America.” In his view, Trump’s crude, security-first approach risks alienating the region and undermining U.S. influence over the long term rather than restoring it.
The full reflection can be read here.
A former research professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Jorge Heine is a diplomat, international relations scholar, and lawyer. He is currently a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute. He has served as an ambassador of Chile to China, India, and South Africa. Heine has written over fifteen books, including The Non-Aligned World: Striking Out in an Era of Great Power Competition (2025), which provides insights on how the Global South can navigate the changing diplomatic landscape amid the U.S.-China rivalry.