For more than an hour and a half, The furthest south the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump went was the Caribbeanonly for the former president to use it as a caricature of what the United States would be like if the Democratic candidate reached the White House: “A Venezuela on steroids,” he simplified to the extreme.
With nuances, the two candidates on Monday demonstrated the underlying validity of the slogan “America First,” with which Trump popularized in 2016 a sentiment that was already gaining ground and established itself in the foreign policy of the United States.
Even in conflicts like Ukraine, where Washington has become involved and has a lot at stake, The debate was about the internal cost, the financial costHarris made clear the need to maintain the rest of the world’s “respect” for the United States, but did not go much further.
The United States has historically been oscillating in its relationship with the world. Its leaders (Jefferson, Hamilton, Jackson, Wilson) have founded diplomatic schools that differ on their global role. Intervene or isolateIs the world an opportunity or a threat? Today it seems more like the latter.
After the “unipolar” period that followed the Cold War and the 2008 financial crisis, Washington now translates this link with the outside world in terms of national security, not only military but also economic and technological. If China has featured less in this debate, it is because voters take it for granted.
The debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, on TV. AP Photo
Thus, Mexico is the economic space where strategic production (nearshoring) previously located in Asia due to costs can be safely relocated. At the same time, The southern neighbor is the last line of defense against Central and South American immigration crossing the Rio Grande. The Biden administration itself has tightened that lock to the maximum in the midst of the election campaign.
So, the cartoon again: “The people who came in are eating dogs, cats, pets,” Trump said. Or raising the spectre of crime, another top campaign issue: “Do you know that crime in Venezuela and other countries has decreased? Because they are sending them to this country.”
I have represented Argentina before the United States and the UN under four White House administrations – George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. In no case have I perceived that as a country, or as a region, we occupy a prominent place on their foreign agenda. Except when actions by “extra-hemispheric” powers are verified in the region.
This is precisely what invalidates the current attempt at “automatic alignment” with one of the two candidates. The fact that the United States as a nation is divided into “two souls” should not lead us to believe that this rift defines its fundamental foreign policy. The debate revealed the relevance of our region in the agenda of the two candidates.
To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, let us not ask what another country can do for us, but what we as a nation – and as a region – can do for ourselves. Then perhaps an upcoming presidential debate will reach more to the South, with more attention and fewer caricatures.
Jorge Argüello is the author of “The Two Souls of the United States”
