A passenger ship passes the Lemaire Channel in Antarctica, circa December 2020. The Trump administration has the opportunity to enhance cooperation with Southern Cone nations to ensure Antarctic security. (Shutterstock/Anton Rodionov)

Why It’s Time for a Southern Cone Security Compact

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Washington needs a regional partnership with Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Bolivia to anchor the long-term economic and national security of the Western Hemisphere.

President Donald Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” coalition of like-minded South American nations may sound, to some ears, like isolationism. From the start, that is decidedly not President Trump’s American vision for the future of the Americas. It is a sequenced initiative first to repulse malicious foreign influences and demolish regional transnational criminal terrorist cartels and subsequently create more secure, free, and open spaces that promote American and allied interests. It signals a renewed partnership with our friends and allies in the Western Hemisphere to bolster their sovereignty, security, resilience, and prosperity. 

There are two important arms to the US effort. 

First, there is pure pragmatism. Washington is willing to partner with governments that want to work with us. Trump is instinctively intolerant of regimes that work to undermine the security, prosperity, and political stability of the United States.

Second, Washington is keen to foster a critical mass of shared political will to tackle the truly tough issues, including the challenge of China; ensuring reliable, affordable, and abundant energy; developing the region’s mineral and natural resources; and protecting allied interests in the Antarctic. The 2025 US National Security Strategy (NSS) names it and the “Enlist and Expand” approach.

Together, the United States and the countries of the Southern Cone of the Western Hemisphere are cooperating well across both vectors. It makes sense to both add momentum to ongoing efforts, increase efficiency and coordination, and send a strong strategic signal to the rest of the world. A Southern Cone Security Compact may well be another component of President Trump’s lasting foreign policy legacy—an accomplishment matching the impact of the Abraham Accords in transforming the entire region.

A modern corollary to the Monroe Doctrine has been long overdue. An impactful Western Hemisphere policy requires robust US economic investment in the region and closer integration of the American continental economies........

© The National Interest