The Monroe Doctrine’s meaning itself is not set in stone, but rather has evolved as U.S. military powers have evolved, said Jennifer Kavanagh, a military expert at Defense Priorities who previously worked at the Defense Department-funded RAND Corporation.
The idea was at first focused on keeping continental European powers out of the Western Hemisphere after the Napoleonic wars, she said, and the British mostly enforced it because the U.S. did not have the capability.
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