Winston Churchill once said, "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." That saying especially holds true today as we watch foreign political influence spreading across the Western Hemisphere at an alarming rate.
In recent weeks, a fleet of Russian warships pulled into Cuban waters, less than 100 miles off the Florida coast. The deployment of warships, including a nuclear submarine, is Vladimir Putin's latest direct provocation to the West, particularly to the United States. We should not take this move lightly. It's Moscow's latest attempt to exert the type of influence in Latin America and the Caribbean region that it did during the Cold War, threats which ultimately led to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Previously, I have warned about the threats made by China in and around the United States. In 2023, the world watched as a Chinese-owned high-altitude balloon criss-crossed the country for nearly a week, hovering over U.S. military bases and potentially collecting secret and sensitive information.
Last summer, we learned China has been operating a spy base in communist Cuba since 2019. Reports indicated the two nations held joint military training in Cuba, which is also home to deep-water ports critical for China to sustain its own naval fleet. Here is why that matters: China now has the world's largest navy, "operating 234 warships to the U.S. Navy's 219," according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
This is why, in recent years, I've called attention to two longstanding principles of American foreign policy: the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary. Both address foreign intervention in the Western Hemisphere and offer guidance to counter provocative acts by foreign adversaries.
Issued in the early 19th century by President James Monroe, the Monroe Doctrine established that a foreign state's intervention in the political affairs of the Americas was potentially a hostile act against the United States. In the 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt built upon it with what is known as the Roosevelt Corollary. Under this policy, the United States could directly intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American countries if they did not do enough to prevent European aggression.
Today, both China and Russia are expanding their influence in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. A February 2024 report from the Atlantic Council put it this way: "China and Russia operate and influence in a myriad of ways, but the core of their influence is through covert and overt strategies to undermine the US position in the region and to shape the foreign policy preferences in Latin America and the Caribbean."
The report notes that while China has been able to economically connect itself to the region, Russia has not. But Russia "seeks to sustain state-to-state security relationships with Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela" to both expand its military influence in the region and sustain the Russian economy through military asset sales to Latin American countries.
China's military positioning coupled with its economic influence are parts of its broader Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure and economic development plan involving nearly two dozen Latin American and Caribbean countries. Russia is also a member of Belt and Road. Through the initiative, China has leveraged its economic power to advance its military interests in our backyard.
We also cannot forget about the Panama Canal. Although the United States built the canal over 100 years ago to expand and ease international travel and trade, today China increasingly controls ports on both ends of it. The waterway is a key piece of Belt and Road expansion in Latin America. This development is incredibly concerning. A top American adversary is in a position to control the canal that we built.
President Joe Biden and his administration must show strength on the world stage. Drawing a proverbial "red line" only to later allow someone to cross it without recourse shows weakness. Withdrawing from Afghanistan only to allow the Taliban to retake the country showed weakness. Appeasing dictators in Latin America and letting Russia escalate tensions in our backyard shows weakness.
History has shown that bad actors will fill a power vacuum unless the United States takes the wheel. In an era of rising global tensions, and with China and Russia seeking greater global influence, now is a time for unwavering American leadership both at home and abroad.
U.S. Representative Mike Kelly is a Republican representing Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District. He currently serves as a member of the U.S.-China Working Group and as the Chairman of the Ways & Means Subcommittee on Tax.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
