The Eighth Defense Ministerial of the Americas: End of the Line?
by Ray Walser
Heritage Foundation

The Canadian government will host the Eighth Defense Ministerial of the Americas (DMA) September 2–6 at Banff in the scenic Canadian Rockies. The purpose of the meeting is the promotion of regional defense and security cooperation in the Americas and the strengthening of ties among 34 invited nations. It is a ministerial event in search of a diplomatic and strategic meaning—and at present lacking both.

Harbinger of Security Cooperation

The first DMA took place in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1995. It began as a defense and security counterpart for the 1994 Miami Summit of the Americas. The U.S. launched the DMA in the proximate aftermath of the Cold War at a time when the U.S. and Latin America appeared to be moving with unity of purpose toward strengthening democracy, expanding free trade, guaranteeing basic human rights, and deepening defense reform and security cooperation.

An underlying assumption of this DMA process was that as the world’s sole superpower, the U.S. was uniquely positioned to mentor the Hemisphere’s armed forces as they set out to discover new roles and relationships in an altered geopolitical environment. The threat posed by the Soviet Union and its proxies had vanished, and Cuba had sunken into nasty but largely isolated dotage.

Among the fundamental “Williamsburg principles” were calls for defending democracy, broadening civilian control over the military, increasing transparency in defense matters, and enhancing confidence-building among nations. These were to become benchmarks for building a better, more unified, and safer Americas. The DMA was also seen as a forum for encouraging non-traditional roles for militaries and strategies to meet emerging transnational threats.

History Returns to Latin America

While its principles remain sound, the DMA today has lost cohesion and much of its rationale for convening. Latin America, thanks to Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Revolution, is engaged in its own version of “the return to history,” to quote conservative strategic thinker Robert Kagan.[1] Signs of this return include a mixture of ethno- and resource-nationalism coupled with a reappearance of Péronist-style populism in Venezuela and elsewhere. For the fervent U.S.-bashers in Latin America, Chávez is the new Fidel Castro, a David striking out at the imperial U.S. hegemon. [Read more →]

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Tags: bolivarian revolution, Brazil, canada, Cuba, defense matters, democracy, Ecuador, Fidel Castro, geopolitical environment, Latin America, Mexico, President Hugo Chavez, Russia, Security, security cooperation, transnational threats, Venezuela, Washington, Western Hemisphere

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