The Return of Gunboat Diplomacy in Latin America?

Larry Birks, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (Coha) discusses the Pentagon's recent move to revive the Navy's Fourth Fleet and its patrolling of Latin American and Caribbean waters. According to a brief written by Birks for Coha at the beginning of the month: "The return of the Fourth Fleet, largely unnoticed by the US press, appears to represent a policy shift that projects an image of Washington once again asserting its military authority on the [Latin American] region."

Discussing Washington's decision to relaunch the Fourth Fleet after years of dormancy - along with almost a decade of Washington ignoring the region both diplomatically and militarily - from a geopolitical point of view, Coha notes that the revival of the Fourth Fleet may "do little more than attempt to introduce a quick fix to Bush’s failed US policy towards Latin America." In his report, Birks argues that the Fleet’s rebirth implies that the Bush administration's "gun boat diplomacy" represents a "new call to arms."

The U.S. may again be prepared to use the prospect of military force if it is found necessary to protect US national interests in Latin America. In particular, the possibility of using the Fourth Fleet already seems to be involved in a calculated and provocative move against Washington’s current bete noir, Hugo Chávez. As Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, stated, “this change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust […] through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests.”

The most ominous observation in this brief report, however, is the fact that given the Pentagon’s recent track record of setting and achieving its strategic objectives (in particular, during the tenure of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld) in particular attempting to improve ties with militaries throughout the Americas by regularly organizing joint “ministerials,” could inadvertently encourage Latin American militaries to "initiate similar scenarios of expansion, modernization, and the revival of their dangerous central roles plagued by past military juntas in their respective societies."