The Documentary Podcast US foreign policy in five doctrines
68 snips
Jan 25, 2026 
Kathleen Burke, Emeritus Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at UCL, on the Reagan Doctrine and Reagan's background. Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian at Rice, on Nixon and postwar strategies. Jay Sexton, historian of 19th-century US policy, on the Monroe Doctrine. They trace five major US foreign policy shifts from Monroe to post-9/11, contrasting interventions, containment, and changing presidential styles.
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Monroe Doctrine's Original Narrow Purpose
- The Monroe Doctrine originally simply barred European intervention in the Western Hemisphere.
- Its vagueness made it a versatile political symbol for later U.S. presidents to repurpose.
Roosevelt's Corollary Reverses The Logic
- Theodore Roosevelt reinterpreted Monroe to justify U.S. intervention as an imperial middleman in the hemisphere.
- That corollary turned a prohibition on outsiders into a rationale for U.S. action.
Postwar Shift Made Monroe Less Central
- After 1945 U.S. foreign policy shifted from regional spheres to global power and institutions.
- That change sidelined the Monroe Doctrine until recent political rhetoric revived its symbolism.
