In the Name of the Americas: The Pan-American Redefinition of the Monroe Doctrine and the Emerging Language of American International Law in the Western Hemisphere, 1898-1933

JUAN PABLO SCARFI

Diplomatic History

Oxford University Press

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2016 vol. 40 p. 189 - 218

0145-2096

After the emergence of the modern version of the Pan-American movement (1889), a series of redefinitions of the Monroe Doctrine began to emerge and circulate throughout the Americas. This led to the progressive Pan-Americanization of the Monroe Doctrine. Moreover, a series of initiatives for the advancement of a common continental approach to ?American international law?, as promoted by the American Institute of International Law, a Pan-American legal organization created by James Brown Scott and Alejandro Alvarez, also contributed to revitalizing the Monroe Doctrine as a hemispheric, multilateral and anti-interventionist principle, and even as a principle of ?American international law?. The historiography of the Monroe Doctrine has tended to concentrate on nineteenth century interpretations, as proposed primarily by U.S. politicians. More importantly, Latin American interpretations of the doctrine have been overlooked. This article explores the hemispheric intellectual history of the doctrine in the ABC countries (Argentina, Brazil and Chile), Uruguay and the U.S., examining its re-interpretation as proposed primarily by Latin American jurists and politicians, such as Luis María Drago, Alejandro Alvarez and Baltasar Brum, and the reactions it provoked in the U.S. It argues that by re-interpreting the Monroe Doctrine as a Pan-American principle, these Latin American figures contributed in turn to redefining U.S. hemispheric hegemony along the lines of multilateralism and non-intervention. However, these transformations were initially resisted, for U.S. politicians and jurists were for the most part reluctant to accept these visions and to renounce U.S. unilateral aspirations and interventionism on the continent until at least 1933.