U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his nominee for secretary of state means that Latin America could play a prominent role in U.S. foreign policy over the next four years. Rubio, who is Cuban American, is known for hawkish positions on countries including China, Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela.
If confirmed, Rubio would be the first Latino to become Washington’s top diplomat. Although Trump has promoted an isolationist foreign-policy agenda that could see the United States withdraw from global engagement, it might not extend to the Western Hemisphere.
For Foreign Policy, Oliver Stuenkel, an associate professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, argued that “at least in the case of Latin America, Trump’s return to the White House would lead to a far more interventionist U.S. foreign policy”—in part due to competition with China and the salience of immigration in U.S. political discourse. In Rubio, Trump seems to have found a champion for this approach.
Read it here: Trump Has His Own Monroe Doctrine
This post is part of FP’s ongoing coverage of the Trump transition. Follow along here.