Soft Balancing in the Americas: Latin American Opposition to U.S. Intervention, 1898–1936

Summary

The concept of soft balancing first emerged in analyses of other countries’ attempts to counter U.S. primacy through nonmilitary means after the end of the Cold War. Soft balancing is not a new phenomenon, however. In the early twentieth century, Latin American states sought to end the United States’ frequent interventions in the region by creating international norms against military intervention.

Read: Friedman and Long's op-ed in the National Interest