Washington’s surprise capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro crystallized a new “Donroe Doctrine” of foreign policy focused on policing the superpower’s immediate neighborhood, analysts said.
A landmark strategy document published last month prioritized US superiority in the Americas, and Maduro’s unseating came alongside recent threats toward Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico, part of efforts to exclude US adversaries from influence in Latin America, an Atlantic Council fellow argued.
Some commentators said China could use the intervention in Venezuela as a template to invade Taiwan, but that analogy is misguided, a Brookings Institution scholar wrote.
Beijing already employs aggressive tactics against Taipei regardless of international norms, and any shift in strategy would come from its own calculations, not “inspiration” from the US.