Richard Nixon, Starbucks, and Justin Beiber have all mistakenly referred to the South American country of “Columbia.”[1] It’s spelled Colombia. In Japan, “go” traffic lights are described as “blue,” despite being green to the (Western) eye, a linguistic holdover from the Heian Era (794-1185).[2] These two disparate anecdotes—the first about committing avoidable mistakes and the second about (mis)understanding context—illustrate different sides of the danger of being too U.S.-centric. In the latter, the analyst or envoy risks applying his or her own standards to the evaluation of the problem. In the former, if the cliché is true and you only get one chance to make a first impression, it is not a good look.
The Global South especially is too rarely part of the national security conversation.
All too often countries outside of Europe, or wherever the military fight is currently happening, are absent from discussions of policy in Washington. The Global South especially is too rarely part of the national security conversation. Even among the major emerging economies, colloquially known as the BRICS, Brazil and South Africa often get left out of the discussion compared to their larger and/or more threatening counterparts in Russia, China and India.[3]
This omission comes with costs, as was illustrated early in 2022. The Russian narrative that they are on the defensive against an encroaching West that has been expanding for decades, most recently colluding with Ukraine to create the next global pandemic, is much more dominant across South America, Africa, and parts of Asia than any pro-Ukraine narrative.[4] The sheer number of countries that either abstained or voted against the United Nations’ condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early in 2022, and the even fewer number who voted to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council in mid-2022, are evidence of how the West is losing the information campaign outside its own borders.[5] But someone in an industrialized democracy consuming only media from that environment, where Ukrainian success has been the modal story, might have no idea.[6]
Being U.S.-centric also often means being English-centric, which comes with its own set of risks.
BRICS Leaders. (Beto Berata/Wikimedia)
Being U.S.-centric also often means being English-centric, which comes with its own set of risks. An October 2022 meta-analysis in Trends in Cognitive Science illustrated the risks of relying too much on English: left-to-right cognitive bias, preference for relative locations over cardinal directions or absolute coordinates, recalling penultimate and ultimate items instead of first or second as happens in left-branching languages, etc.[7] Any of these individually might seem unimportant, but grouped together they constitute a large potential blind spot. And these biases are the norm for whoever is falling victim to them, making them tougher to combat, if the person involved is even aware of his or her potential biases.
Even within any one language, a U.S.-centric view risks amalgamating groups who might think themselves quite distinct. Spanish speakers in the United States represent a prime example of this. To an English monolingual, it is all too easy to group Spanish speakers together, despite their documented differences.[8] (The song “Carnaval del Barrio” from the musical In the Heights highlights the variety of Latin cultures present in any U.S. city on any given day.[9]) Such sometimes innocent mistakes exacerbate in-group/out-group tendencies and make cross-cultural communication more difficult, even if that other culture is within one’s own borders.
Why does this matter? Many U.S. policymakers and national security analysts are ceding ground that could be, with minimal investment and attention, fairly easily won. To again use the example of Latin America, despite governments in the region engaging with all countries involved in Great Power Competition, Latins overall strongly prefer to partner with the U.S. over China or Russia.[10] China is actively investing there, creating vertical monopolies in soybean farming, production and export, and building space bases and dozens of ports, among other endeavors.[11] That is at least part of why China’s popularity and influence is growing.[12] In 2017, 51% of survey respondents in the region had a positive view of China, compared to 26% with an unfavorable view.[13] (For comparison, U.S. favorability in the region in 2015 was above 65% in many countries in the region.[14]) In Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, from 2014 to 2019, favorable opinions of China increased by about 7 points.[15]
Yet, more than twenty years after George W. Bush ran on reengaging with Latin America―before September 11th and the global war on terror dominated U.S. policy decisions―such engagement is poorly strategized.[16] Vice President Kamala Harris has visited the region, but within her portfolio as immigration czar, and even then only briefly.[17] General Laura Richardson, the senior military officer for the region, visits often.[18] In a region that during the Cold War dealt with so very many interventions by the U.S. government to (often) prop up dictators under the guise of containing communism―a region therefore quite justifiably suspect of the U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency (as many memes have illustrated)―having the military as the modal face of strategic-level visits seems not well thought-out.[19]
How might policymakers more fruitfully engage? First and foremost, at least with Latin America, the conversation has to include more than immigration and drugs. In Mexico, for example, the lax gun laws of the United States, especially in Texas, are a top national security concern.[20] For Brazil―the only country in Latin America that sent troops in World War II, the world's fifth-largest country in size, housing one in eight of the world’s trees that produce the oxygen we all breathe, and one of the world's top dozen economies―the foreign policy crowd wants recognition as a global power, ideally with a permanent seat on the Security Council.[21] The U.S. alone cannot make that change, but the designation of Brazil as a major non-NATO ally is a good start.[22] More open trade and scientific cooperation are Brazilian priorities that should be easy enough for folks in Washington to get behind.[23] Smaller countries in the region would likely welcome even simpler offers. To revisit the example at the beginning of this article, the U.S. foreign policy crowd’s spelling countries’ names consistently correctly—and then pronouncing country names correctly or even knowing that Afghan is the people and Afghani the currency—would be a good first (baby) step.[24]
Engagement cannot only occur when it is in the U.S. interest. The twitchiness of the U.S. policymaking process means that the U.S. only comes knocking on the Global South’s door when it wants something.
Africa on the globe. (James Wiseman/Unsplash)
But any offers need to come from a place of honesty. It cannot be more of what the Global South has viewed as “grandstanding.”[25] Most of Latin America would like the existing―albeit imperilled―world order to be less hierarchical, more flat.[26] Latin American governments, among others in the Global South, have long “insisted that the rules of a rules-based order should apply not just to the poor, weak, or indebted but to the rich, strong, and powerful as well.”[27]
And engagement cannot only occur when it is in the U.S. interest. The twitchiness of the U.S. policymaking process―a.k.a. the dance done regularly between the Executive and Legislative branches, made worse by a market media system that rewards clicks over all else―means the U.S. only comes knocking on the Global South’s door when it wants something.[28] Again, not a good look.
Eighty-five percent of the world’s population lives outside of industrialized democracies.[29] By 2050, six of the world's ten largest cities will be in India, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nigeria.[30] By 2100, the African continent dominates that list. How many people in the United States know that? Within the foreign policy community even? The proper question is not what gets missed or what opportunities are lost by having such a U.S.-centric view. The question is what has to happen before U.S. policymakers again decide to pay attention to the 85 percent of the world it has most often ignored. Waiting for the next catastrophe and reacting in a knee-jerk way seems like a really poor plan.
There is no hegemon that has survived history. Empires are always overrun, by time if not by force. Keeping a U.S.-centric view and not engaging with the Global South puts policymakers at risk of being surprised when―not if―the next empire overtakes the U.S., just as the U.S. overtook Britain and Britain overtook the French and so and so forth.
Amanda B. Cronkhite is a social scientist focused on Latin America. She is a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer and has held faculty positions at the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), the U.S. Army War College, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
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Header Image: UN General Assembly votes to suspend the rights of the membership of the Russian Federation in the Human Rights Council during an Emergency Special Session on Ukraine, 2022 (UN Photo/Manuel Elías).
Notes:
[1] Jim Wyss, “‘Colombia’ vs. ‘Columbia’: South American country wants its name spelled right,” Tribune News Service, February 1, 2016, https://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/sfl-colombia-vs-columbia-south-american-country-wants-its-name-spelled-right-20160128-story.html; “Terrence McCoy, “Colombians just want you to stop misspelling their country’s name,” Washington Post, April 23, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/23/colombians-just-want-you-to-stop-misspelling-their-countrys-name/
[2] Dr. Wenshuo Zhang, email message to author, October 21, 2013.
[3] Alyssa Ayres, “How the BRICS Got Here,” Council on Foreign Relations, August 31, 2017, https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/how-brics-got-here
[4] Trita Parsi, “Why non-Western countries tend to see Russia's war very, very differently,” MSNBC, April 11, 2022, https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ukraine-russia-war-looks-very-different-outside-west-n1294280; Mary Blankenship and Aloysius Uche Ordu, “Russia’s narratives about its invasion of Ukraine are lingering in Africa,” Brookings, June 27, 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/06/27/russias-narratives-about-its-invasion-of-ukraine-are-lingering-in-africa/
[5] Mark Green, “Only 93 Countries of the Human Rights Council’s 193-member General Assembly Voted to Suspend Russia,” Wilson Center, June 21, 2022, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/only-93-countries-human-rights-councils-193-member-general-assembly-voted-suspend-russia; Ivana Saric and Zachary Basu, “141 countries vote to condemn Russia at UN,” Axios, March 2, 2022, https://www.axios.com/2022/03/02/united-nations-ukraine-russia-141; Olga Robinson, Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jake Horton, “Ukraine war: Fact-checking Russia's biological weapons claims,” BBC News, March 15, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/60711705
[6] Paul Baines, “Ukrainian propaganda: how Zelensky is winning the information war against Russia,” The Conversation, May 11, 2022, https://theconversation.com/ukrainian-propaganda-how-zelensky-is-winning-the-information-war-against-russia-182061; Morgan Meaker, “How Ukraine Is Winning the Propaganda War,” WIRED, June 13, 2022, https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-propaganda-war/; Chels Michta, “Ukraine is Winning,” Center for European Policy Analysis, September, 6, 2022, https://cepa.org/article/ukraine-is-winning/
[7] Damián E. Blasi, Joseph Henrich, Evangelia Adamou, David Kemmerer, and Asifa Majid, “Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science,” Trends in Cognitive Science, October 14, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.09.015; Asifa Majid, October 15, 2022, 07:25 am, and https://twitter.com/asifa_majid/status/1581244979061874688.
[8] Eliza Willis and Janet A. Seiz, “All Latinos don’t vote the same way – their place of origin matters,” March 17, 2020, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/all-latinos-dont-vote-the-same-way-their-place-of-origin-matters-133600; Jens Manuel Krogstad, “Mexicans, Dominicans are more Catholic than most other Hispanics,” Pew Research Center, May 24, 2014, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/27/mexicans-and-dominicans-more-catholic-than-most-hispanics/; Andrew Boryga, “Democrats push Puerto Rican voters to outmuscle Cuban Republicans in Florida,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, October 24, 2020, https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-democrat-push-puerto-rican-voters-florida-20201024-6m6rwvuf6vbg5jl5mnq2cqaoxa-story.html
[9] Paul Taylor, Mark Hugo Lopez, Jessica Martínez and Gabriel Velasco, “When Labels Don’t Fit: Hispanics and Their Views of Identity,” Pew Research Center, April 4, 2012, https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2012/04/04/when-labels-dont-fit-hispanics-and-their-views-of-identity/ ; “Seija Rankin, “Go inside the making of In the Heights with this exclusive excerpt,” Entertainment Weekly, June 10, 2021, https://ew.com/books/go-inside-the-making-of-in-the-heights/
[10] Carlos A. Romero, Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, Carlos Luján, Guadalupe González González and Mónica Hirst, “Cómo América Latina ve a Europa,” Nueva Sociedad, April 2022, https://nuso.org/articulo/como-AL-ve-a-europa/; Marcos Ommati, “China and Russia: The Worst Image Among Latin Americans,” Diálogo Américas, April 15, 2022, https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/china-and-russia-the-worst-image-among-latin-americans
[11] "The rival influences of the United States and China,” The Economist, June 16, 2022, https://www.economist.com/special-report/2022/06/16/the-rival-influences-of-the-united-states-and-china; Leland Lazarus and Ryan C. Berg, “Washington Must Respond to China’s Growing Military Presence in Latin America,” Foreign Policy, March 14, 2022, https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/14/china-latin-america-military-pla-infrastructure-ports-colombia/; Ernesto Lodoño, “From a Space Station in Argentina, China Expands Its Reach in Latin America,” New York Times, July 28, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/world/americas/china-latin-america.html; Iván Marcos Peláez, “COFCO Group, China's state-owned agribusiness giant,” LinkedIn, March 8, 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cofco-group-chinas-state-owned-agribusiness-giant-iv%C3%A1n-marcos-pel%C3%A1ez/
[12] Andres Oppenheimer, “China is becoming more popular than the U.S. in many Latin American countries,” The Miami Herald, April 24, 2019, https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article229621934.html
[13] Richard Wike, Jacob Poushter, Laura Silver and Caldwell Bishop,” Globally, More Name U.S. Than China as World’s Leading Economic Power,” Pew Research Center, July 13, 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2017/07/13/more-name-u-s-than-china-as-worlds-leading-economic-power/
[14] “America’s Global Image,” Pew Research Center, June 23, 2015, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2015/06/23/1-americas-global-image/
[15] “China’s Image,” Pew Research Center, July 14, 2014, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/07/14/chapter-2-chinas-image/; Laura Silver, Kat Devlin and Chrstine Huang, “Attitudes Toward China,” Pew Research Center, December 5, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/12/05/attitudes-toward-china-2019/
[16] Frank Bruni, “The 2000 Campaign: The Texas Governor; Bush Vows to Put Greater U.S. Focus on Latin America,” New York Times, August 26, 2000, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/26/us/2000-campaign-texas-governor-bush-vows-put-greater-us-focus-latin-america.html
[17] Thomas Suh Lauder, Maloy Moore and Matt Stiles, “What’s on Kamala Harris’ calendar?” Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/projects/kamala-harris-events-appearances-vp-schedule-news/; Noah Bierman, “Kamala Harris’ biggest assignment is in Latin America. But she hasn’t gone there much,” Los Angeles Times, June 6, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-06-06/harris-biggest-assignment-is-in-latin-america-but-she-hasnt-been-there-much
[18] André Spigariol, “Brazil, U.S. to hold unprecedented military exercise,” Brazilian Report, December 3, 2021, https://brazilian.report/liveblog/2021/12/03/unprecedented-military-exercise/; Rafael Andrade, “SOUTHCOM Commander Visits Argentina and Chile,” Diálogo Américas, May 11, 2022, https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/southcom-commander-visits-argentina-and-chile
[19] John Coatsworth, “United States Interventions,” Revista, May 15, 2005, https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/united-states-interventions/; “America,” Digital image, Memedroid. September 6, 2022, https://www.memedroid.com/memes/detail/3781951/America?refGallery=tags&page=1&tag=captain+america; @bluboy43, Twitter post, July 2, 2022, 10:41 am, https://twitter.com/bluboy43/status/1543258574893322242; “The US and the Fear of Communism in their own ‘Backyard’,” Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, n.d. https://www.roosevelt.nl/from-the-vaults/the-us-and-the-fear-of-communism-in-their-own-backyard/
[20] Ann Deslandes, “US arms companies under pressure from Mexico lawsuit,” AlJazeera, August 18, 2022, https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/8/18/us-arms-companies-under-pressure-from-mexico-lawsuit; Julian Resendiz, “Mexico calls on U.S. for help in stopping delivery of guns to cartels,” KRQE News, September 8, 2022, https://www.krqe.com/news/border-report/mexico-calls-on-u-s-for-help-in-stopping-delivery-of-guns-to-cartels/; Alfredo Corchado, “Mexico worries that new Texas permitless carry law will lead to more violence south of the border,” Dallas Morning News, August 6, 2021, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/mexico/2021/08/06/mexico-worries-that-new-texas-permitless-carry-law-will-lead-to-more-violence-south-of-the-border/
[21] Diana Roy, “Brazil’s Global Ambitions,” Council on Foreign Relations, September 19, 2022, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/brazils-global-ambitions; “Lula Seeks Permanent U.N. Security Council Seats for Brazil, Japan,” Nippon.com, August 23, 2022, https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2022082300559/; Eugenio V. Garcia and Natalia B.R. Coelho, “A Seat at the Top? A Historical Appraisal of Brazil’s Case for the UN Security Council,” SAGE Open 8, no. 3(2018), https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018801098; Tim Vernimmen, “Business as Usual Threatens Thousands of Amazon Tree Species,” Scientific American, June 24, 2019, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/business-as-usual-threatens-thousands-of-amazon-tree-species
[22] “Trump designates Brazil a ‘major non-NATO ally’,” Associated Press, July 31, 2019, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-brazil-jair-bolsonaro-latin-america-politics-569758ff78f94677897e71b595e6c48b
[23] Embassy of Brazil in Washington, DC. “A major step was taken today to further facilitate Brazil-U.S. trade” September 16, 2022, 9:32 PM, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/BrazilianEmbassy/posts/pfbid02JZjNuGhw2gmRH4bCwuKgrS1915aSDzhmw6quji5UvuVvkaUdpkCVgdYvDBrZn32Gl; “Brasil quer EUA como principal destino de cientistas bolsistas,” CidadeVerde.com, April 4, 2012, https://cidadeverde.com/noticias/99131/brasil-quer-eua-como-principal-destino-de-cientistas-bolsistas
[24] Chelsea Bengier, “These Are the Most Misspelled Countries in the World,” Yahoo, October 9, 2020, https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/most-misspelled-countries-world-185203670.html; “10 Countries Whose Names People Regularly Mispronounce,” TwistedSifter.com, August 1, 2022, https://twistedsifter.com/2022/08/10-countries-whose-names-people-regularly-mispronounce/; Timothy Noah, “Afghan vs. Afghani, Part 3,” Slate, December 2, 2001, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2001/12/afghan-vs-afghani-part-3.html
[25] Marc Saxer, “The end of the end of history,” International Politics and Society, July 13, 2022, https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/foreign-and-security-policy/the-end-of-the-end-of-history-6063/
[26] R. Evan Ellis, “The Transitional World Order: Implications for Latin America and the Caribbean,” Global Americans, March 29, 2022, https://theglobalamericans.org/2022/03/the-transitional-world-order-implications-for-latin-america-and-the-caribbean/
[27] J. Luis Rodriguez &Christy Thornton, “The liberal international order and the global south: a view from Latin America,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 2022, page 1, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09557571.2022.2107326
[28] Rosa Balfour, Lizza Bomassi and Marta Martinelli, “Coronavirus and the Widening Global North-South Gap,” Carnegie Europe, April 25, 2022, https://carnegieeurope.eu/2022/04/25/coronavirus-and-widening-global-north-south-gap-pub-86891; Amanda Cronkhite, Twitter post, September 4, 2022, 7:05 am, https://twitter.com/abcronkhite/status/1566396927612272646; Amanda Cronkhite and Jacqueline Whitt, “Why does the media cover stories in some countries… but not others?” War Room, February 12, 2019, https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/podcasts/why-does-the-media-cover-stories-in-some-countries-but-not-others/
[29] “The least developed countries report 2020: productive capacities for the new decade,” United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, December 3, 2020, https://unctad.org/press-material/least-developed-countries-report-2020productive-capacities-new-decade; Brian Wang, “Developed Country population from 17% to over 50% of World by 2050,” NextBigFuture.com, November 19, 2018, https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/11/developed-country-population-from-17-to-over-50-of-world-by-2050.html
[30] Rebecca Harrington, “These will be the world's 10 biggest cities in 2050 — and you probably haven't heard of some of them,” Business Insider, February 18, 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-populous-cities-2050-2016-2 ; “City Population by 2100,” Ontario Tech University, January 2014, https://sites.ontariotechu.ca/sustainabilitytoday/urban-and-energy-systems/Worlds-largest-cities/population-projections/city-population-2100.php Continue Text