The Monroe Doctrine and United States National Security in the Early Twentieth Century

This book demonstrates that during the early twentieth century, the Monroe Doctrine served the role of a national security framework that justified new directions in United States foreign relations when the nation emerged as one of the worlds leading imperial powers. As the United States overseas empire expanded in the wake of the Spanish-American War, the nations decision-makers engaged in a protracted debate over the meaning and application of the doctrine, aligning it to two antithetical core values simultaneously: regional hegemony in the Western Hemisphere on the one hand, and Pan-Americanism on the other. The doctrines fractured meaning reflected the divisions that existed among domestic perceptions of the nations new role on the world stage and directed the nations approach to key historical events such as the acquisition of the Philippines, the Mexican Revolution, the construction of the Panama Canal, the First World War, and the debate over the League of Nations.