The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China

by Kevin Rudd

China’s strategic approach has also been influenced by having carefully studied the history of America’s Monroe Doctrine. Beijing observed Washington’s ruthless determination under this doctrine and how it sought, over nearly two hundred years, to secure its wider strategic environment by denying access to the “American” hemisphere to any other great power. By extension, the US repeatedly acted to ensure that its regional neighbors across the Americas complied with Washington’s political and strategic interests. This was codified by the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which asserted the United States’ right to intervene in the internal economic affairs of Central American and Caribbean states if they were unable to pay their international debts. This policy led to political cartoons of President Teddy Roosevelt patrolling America’s “Caribbean Lake,” threatening small countries with his big stick.