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ABSTRACT
On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Michael Desch’s seminal work, I reexamine the applicability of his analysis of the United States’ Latin America grand strategy by discussing the case of Iran. Desch analyzes the relevance of Latin America in US grand strategy in the following cases: US–German rivalry during World War I; US–German rivalry during World War II; and US–USSR rivalry during the Cold War. Desch addresses the value of Latin America to the US grand strategy based on their extrinsic and intrinsic value. He argues that Latin America is only of extrinsic value to the US. I argue that although Latin America is only of extrinsic value to the US, it is of intrinsic value to Iran, which increases the degree of Latin America’s extrinsic value to the US. Through applying Desch’s theoretical framework, I argue that it is possible to analyze Iran’s current activities in Latin America and the potential threat to the balance of power that their Latin America policies presents.
Acknowledgments
I thank Jonathan N. Brown for providing the original idea for this research. I thank Masoud Kazemzadeh for his comments and criticisms on earlier drafts of this article. I also thank Jason Enia for his comments and guidance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Michael Desch, When the Third World Matters: Latin America and United States Grand Strategy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), xi.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., 10.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., 17.
8. Ibid., 89.
9. Masoud Kazemzadeh, “The Sources of the Middle East’s Crisis and American Grand Strategy,” Comparative Strategy 17, no. 1 (2018): 56.
10. Desch, When the Third World Matters, 142.
11. Michael Desch, “The Keys that Lock Up the World: Identifying American Interests in the Periphery,” International Security 14, no. 1 (1989): 86–121.
12. Samuel P. Huntington, “The Lonely Superpower,” Foreign Affairs 78, no. 2. (2009): 36.
13. Masoud Kazemzadeh, “Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US,” The Hill, February 4, 2016, thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/265794-iran-saudi-arabia-and-the-us (accessed November 23, 2018); no author cited, “Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab Allies Tout Victory over Iran after US Quits Iran Deal,” Haaretz.com, May 9, 2018. www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/saudi-arabia-and-gulf-arab-allies-tout-victory-over-iran-1.6072869 (accessed November 21, 2018); and Frederic Wehrey, David E. Thaler, Nora Bensahel, Kim Cragin, Jerrold D. Green, Dalai Dassa Kaye, Nadia Oweidat, and Jennifer J. Li, “Arab Perceptions of the Iranian Threat,” in Dangerous but Not Omnipotent: Exploring the Reach and Limitations of Iranian Power in the Middle East, ed. Frederic Wehrey, David E. Thaler, Nora Bensahel, Kim Cragin, Jerrold D. Green, Dalai Dassa Kaye, Nadia Oweidat, and Jennifer J. Li (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009), 135–44. https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG781.html. Also available in print form.
14. Douglas Farah, “Iran in Latin America: An Overview,” in Iran in Latin America: Threat or “Axis of Annoyance”? ed. Cynthia Arnson, Haleh Esfandiari, and Adam Stubits (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Iran_in_LA.pdf (accessed February 20, 2016); Vincent Lofaso, “The Iran Doctrine in Latin America: A Threat to Hemispheric Security? ” The Council on Hemispheric Affairs 37, no. 1 (November 2, 2016), http://www.coha.org/the-iran-doctrine-in-latin-america-a-threat-to-hemispheric-security/ (accessed December 15, 2016).
15. Penny Watson, “Iran’s Latin America Strategy: 2005 to Present,” Democracy and Security 13, no. 2 (2017): 127–43.
16. Joseph Humire, “Iran Taking over Latin America,” Gatestone Institute (December 16, 2015) (accessed February 4, 2017).
17. Jon B. Perdue, “A Marriage of Radical Ideologies” in Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America, ed. Joseph M. Humire and Ilan Berman (London: Lexington, 2014), 13.
18. Ibid., 15.
19. Joel Hirst, “The ALBA: Iran’s Gateway,” in Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America, ed. Joseph M. Humire and Ilan Berman (London: Lexington, 2014), 22.
20. Posture Statement of General John F. Kelly, United States Marine Corps Commander United States Southern Command before the 114th Congress Senate Armed Services Committee (March 12, 2015), 6.
21. Ibid., 6.
22. Roger F. Noriega, “Iran’s Gambit in Latin America,” Commentary, no. 2 (February 2012), 133.
23. Matthew Levitt, Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013, 2015), 16.
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26. Ibid., 1.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Joel Hirst, “The ALBA: Iran’s Gateway,” in Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America, ed. Joseph M. Humire and Ilan Berman (London: Lexington, 2014), 24.
30. Ibid., 24–25.
31. Ibid., 29.
32. Ibid., 26.
33. Martin Rodil, “Venezuelan Platform for Iran’s Military Ambition,” in Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America, ed. Joseph M. Humire and Ilan Berman (London: Lexington, 2014), 68.
34. Posture Statement of General John F. Kelly, United States Marine Corps Commander United States Southern Command before the 114th Congress Senate Armed Services Committee (March 12, 2015), 9.
35. Dina Siegel Vann, “Iran’s Presence in Latin America: Trade, Energy, and Terror,” www.hacer.org/pdf/IRAN.pdf.
36. Penny Watson, “Iran’s Latin America Strategy: 2005 to Present,” Democracy and Security 13, no. 2: 127-143.
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39. Ibid.
40. Desch, When the Third World Matters, 25.
41. Ibid., 25.
42. Joel Hirst. “The ALBA,” 27.
43. Jon B. Perdue, “A Marriage of Radical Ideologies,” in Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America, ed. Joseph M. Humire and Ilan Berman (London: Lexington, 2014), 14.
44. Joseph Humire, “Iran Taking over Latin America,” Gatestone Institute (December 16, 2015) (accessed February 4, 2017); and Maria Antonia Delgada, “Israel: Chávez Ayuda a Irán a Construir Bomba Nuclear,” Informe21.com (July 20, 2012), http://informe21.com/relaciones-iran-venezuela/12/07/20/israel-chavez-ayuda-a-iran-a-construir-bomba-nuclear (accessed April 15, 2016).
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47. Terence Rosenthal, “Los Zetas and Hezbollah, a Deadly Alliance of Terror and Vice,” Center for Security Policy, July 10, 2013. https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2013/07/10/los-zetas-and-hezbollah-a-deadly-alliance-of-terror-and-vice/ (accessed October 24, 2018).
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, “Why States Won’t Give Nuclear Weapons to Terrorists,” International Security 38, no. 1 (2013): 80–104, 92.
52. Ibid., 92.
53. Masoud Kazemzadeh. “Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US,” The Hill, January 14, 2016. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/265794-iran-saudi-arabia-and-the-us (accessed March 6, 2017).
54. Desch, When the Third World Matters, 50.
55. Ibid., 50.
56. “Minister Says Iran Produced 1,400,000 Tons Sugar Last Year,” Islamic Republic News Agency (April 27, 2015), http://www.irna.ir/en/News/81587104/ (accessed May 7, 2017).
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61. Desch, When the Third World Matters, 50.
62. Joseph Humire, “Iran Taking over Latin America,” Gatestone Institute, December 16, 2015. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7060/iran-latin-america (accessed February 4, 2017).
63. Posture Statement of General John F. Kelly.
64. Desch, When the Third World Matters, 58, 62.
65. Ibid., 63.
66. Roger F. Noriega, “Iran’s Gambit in Latin America,” Commentary (February 2012): 30.
67. No author cited, “Commander Reveals Iranian Navy’s Plan to Deploy Warships in Latin,” Fars News Agency, April 2, 2016. http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950114000824 (accessed January 12, 2017).
68. Ibid.
69. Masoud Kazemzadeh, “Foreign Policy Decision Making in Iran and the Nuclear Program,” Comparative Strategy 36, no. 3 (2017): 198–214.
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71. David Albright, Olli Heinonen, and Andrea Stricker, “Breaking Up and Reorienting Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program—Iran’s Nuclear Archive Shows the 2003 Restructuring of Its Nuclear Weapons Program, Then Called the AMAD Program, into Covert and Overt Parts,” Institute for Science and International Security (October 29, 2018), isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/breaking-up-and-reorienting-irans-nuclear-weapons-program (accessed December 1, 2018).
72. Ibid.
73. Imtiyaz Delawala, “What Is Coltan?” ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=128631&page=1 (accessed April 2, 2016).
74. No author cited, “Tantalum Market Overview,” MMTA, http://www.mmta.co.uk/tantalum-market-overview (accessed April 2, 2016).
75. No author cited, “Metals and Minerals: About Thorium,” Empire State Ventures, http://www.empirestatemetals.com/thorium.shtml (accessed April 2, 2016).
76. No author cited, “Latin America Poised to Become Uranium Superpower,” MINING.com, September 29, 2012. http://www.mining.com/latin-american-posed-to-be-a-uranium-superpower-10604 (accessed April 16, 2016).
77. IIan Berman, “Iran Courts Latin America,” Middle East Forum (Summer 2012), http://www.meforum.org/3297/iran-latin-america (accessed April 15, 2016).
78. Ibid.
79. Roger Noriega, “Fresh Evidence Emerging of Iran’s Deadly Nuclear and Terror Ties to Argentina,” AEIdeas, American Enterprise Institute (March 7, 2016), https://www.aei.org/publication/fresh-evidence-emerging-of-irans-deadly-nuclear-and-terror-ties-to-argentina/ (accessed October 23, 2016).
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81. Linette Lopez, “Bombshell Report Alleges Argentina, Iran, and Venezuela Were Once All Bound Together by Sex, Drugs, and Nuclear Secrets,” Business Insider (March 16, 2015). http://www.businessinsider.com/brazils-iran-argentina-nuclear-ties-story-2015-3 (accessed October 20, 2016); and Roger Noriega, “Fresh Evidence Emerging of Iran’s Deadly Nuclear and Terror Ties to Argentina,” AEIdeas American Enterprise Institute (March 7, 2016), https://www.aei.org/publication/fresh-evidence-emerging-of-irans-deadly-nuclear-and-terror-ties-to-argentina/ (accessed October 23, 2016).
82. Scott D. Sagan, “Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons? Three Models in Search of a Bomb,” International Security 21, no. 3 (1996): 54–86, 55.
83. “Shah of Iran on Nuclear Weapons,” YouTube, March 3, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiUQO7wgcyw (accessed June 23, 2018). (Obviously, the Shah was in error; Germany did not then, nor does today, possess nuclear weapons).
84. Ibid.
85. I owe this paragraph to Masoud Kazemzadeh.
86. Matthew Levitt, Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2015), 20, 65–66; and Maria Antonio Delgado, “Militar Iraní a Cargo de Programa Venezolano de Aviones No Tripulados,” Elnuevoherald, June 18, 2012. http://www.elnuevoherald.com/ultimas-noticias/article2016102.html (accessed October 10, 2016) My translation.
87. Maria Antonio Delgado, “Militar Iraní.”
88. Penny Watson, “Iran’s Latin America Strategy.”
89. David Albright, Olli Heinonen, and Andrea Stricker, “Breaking Up and Reorienting Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program—Iran’s Nuclear Archive Shows the 2003 Restructuring of Its Nuclear Weapons Program, Then Called the AMAD Program, into Covert and Overt Parts,” Institute for Science and International Security (October 29, 2018), isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/breaking-up-and-reorienting-irans-nuclear-weapons-program (accessed December 1, 2018).
90. Sagan, “Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons?,” 54.
91. Kazemzadeh, “The Sources of the Middle East’s Crisis.”
92. Ilan Berman and Richard Harrison, “From the Editors,” Defense Dossier (December 2013) no. 9: 2, http://ww.insidethecoldwar.org/files/december2013.pdf (accessed November 17, 2018).
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