In Praise of Benign Neglect

By Ralph Espach

Ralph Espach is a Senior Research Scientist specializing in Latin America at CNA.  He is the author of Private Environmental Regimes in Developing Countries: Globally Sown, Locally Grown and co-editor of The Strategic Dynamics of Inter-American Trade; Latin America in the New International System; and Combating Corruption in Latin America. The views expressed here are those of the author alone, and do not represent the views of CNA or any of its sponsors.

The Obama administration has been criticized for a policy of undue passiveness around the world, including in Latin America. It may be a stretch to call it “benign neglect.” After all, the United States has dramatically increased cooperation in Central America and Mexico, while maintaining strong ties with allies like Colombia, Chile, and Peru. But over the last decade, the United States has acted with remarkable restraint when faced with the rise and fall of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s leftist alliance with Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, and other nations; widespread anti-American rhetoric; the building of hemispheric institutions that exclude Canada and the U.S.; and outreach to China, Russia, and Iran. As commodity riches buoyed ambitions for world order in which “blue eyed devils”—as Brazil’s former President Lula called Americans and Europeans—would be brought to heel by rising powers, Obama’s team for the most part let events unfold.

That bet paid off. As Shannon O’Neil asserted in The Cipher Brief last week, Latin America is more politically stable, institutionally democratic, and set to prosper than ever. Yes, Venezuela is a kleptocracy and Nicaragua an autocracy, but other democracies—Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala—have survived severe institutional and economic crises and emerged with their institutions intact. Leftist firebrand presidents in Ecuador and Bolivia seem to have decided to allow democratic transitions, leaving their nations in relatively good order. Even Cuba has accepted that some degree of market activity and economic—though not political—freedom is necessary to modernize its economy and prolong its communist project.

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