Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Drawing on an impressive array of primary sources, We may dominate the world charts the United States' evolution from a regional power in the late nineteenth century to eventually imposing itself as a hegemon after the Second World War. Over three parts, Sean Mirski demonstrates how the US was ‘compelled’, to a certain extent, to intervene diplomatically, economically and militarily in Latin America to ‘stabilize its backyard’ and to prevent it from falling into the hands of its great-power rivals (pp. 2 and 104). Part one begins with the American Civil War, during which European powers profited from American internal divisions. France, for instance, made a second intervention in 1861–7 in Mexico, which served as a wake-up call for the Union. From then on, US foreign policy constantly adapted to regional challenges, with the primary ambition of enshrining the Monroe Doctrine and rooting out any European (and later on, Asian) influences in the western hemisphere. According to Mirski, the possible partition of Latin America by Britain and Spain, along with rising imperial Japanese claims in the Pacific, persuaded the US that it had to grab foreign lands pre-emptively to avoid having imperial powers at its door. Hawaii's annexation, for instance, was part of a strategic move to control an island that could potentially fall to Japan.
Source: International Affairs
DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae205
Author: Emmanuel Destenay
Institution: Sorbonne Université
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4402379634