The Monroe Doctrine, Venezuela’s fragile pragmatism
The Hindu
Key Arguments
Erosion of absolutist sanctions policy
The article highlights how prolonged US sanctions failed to achieve regime change in Venezuela and instead worsened economic collapse, humanitarian distress, and regional instability.
Return of pragmatic engagement
Washington’s recent relaxation of oil-related sanctions and limited diplomatic outreach is portrayed as an admission that isolation has diminishing returns.
Energy security and geopolitics
The Ukraine war, volatility in global oil markets, and the need to counter Chinese and Russian influence in Latin America are identified as key drivers of policy recalibration.
Maduro’s strategic resilience
The Venezuelan leadership is depicted as having survived international pressure by leveraging alternative partners, internal control mechanisms, and selective concessions.
Conditional engagement, not normalization
The article stresses that US outreach remains transactional and reversible, tied to electoral commitments and democratic benchmarks rather than full diplomatic rehabilitation.
Author’s Stance and Bias
Stance
The author adopts a realist and critical tone, suggesting that US policy is guided more by strategic necessity than by democratic values or normative consistency.
Biases
There is a discernible scepticism towards US moral posturing. The article implicitly downplays internal authoritarian excesses of the Venezuelan regime to foreground the failures and contradictions of American foreign policy.
Pros Highlighted
Policy realism
Acknowledges limits of sanctions as a foreign policy tool and adapts to ground realities.
Economic relief potential
Partial sanctions easing may marginally improve Venezuela’s oil output and economic conditions.
Strategic rebalancing
Reduces the vacuum exploited by China, Russia and Iran in Latin America.
Cons and Risks
Normative dilution
Engagement risks legitimising authoritarian governance without guaranteed democratic reforms.
Mixed signalling
Selective pragmatism may weaken US credibility on democracy and human rights globally.
Fragile outcomes
Any gains remain reversible, vulnerable to US domestic politics and electoral cycles.
Policy Implications
Sanctions policy rethink
The article suggests a broader lesson on the limited effectiveness of maximalist sanctions without diplomatic pathways.
Great power competition
Latin America is re-emerging as a contested geopolitical space, not a settled US sphere of influence.
Energy diplomacy
Energy security is increasingly shaping foreign policy choices, even at the cost of ideological coherence.
Real-World Impact
For Venezuela, the shift offers limited economic breathing space but not structural recovery. For the US, it reflects a pragmatic attempt to manage decline in influence rather than restore dominance. Regionally, it signals to other sanctioned states that endurance and strategic alignment can eventually soften external pressure.
UPSC GS Paper Linkages
GS Paper II – International Relations
US foreign policy doctrines, sanctions diplomacy, Latin America, great power competition.
GS Paper II – Global Governance
Limits of coercive diplomacy, multilateralism versus unilateral sanctions.
GS Paper III – Energy Security
Global oil markets, geopolitics of energy supply.
Conclusion and Future Perspective
The article convincingly argues that the Venezuela case marks a quiet retreat from doctrinal rigidity towards strategic pragmatism in US foreign policy. However, this pragmatism is fragile, constrained by domestic politics and normative contradictions. Going forward, sustained engagement rather than episodic sanction relief will determine whether Venezuela’s crisis moves towards stabilization or remains trapped in cyclical dependency and political stagnation.
