FAFO as Foreign Policy

The Donroe Doctrine and the Return to Spheres of Influence

Dear readers and subscribers,

We find ourselves witnessing a transformation in American foreign policy that historians and strategists have long anticipated (at least in Moscow,) though its explicit formulation still merits careful examination. The events in Venezuela and the Trump administration’s increasingly straightforward declarations suggest we are observing not an aberration, but the formal acknowledgment of principles that have always animated great power politics, now simply stripped of rhetorical disguise.

The Donroe Doctrine, as it is now known, marks a significant historical shift:

The United States' departure from the post-Cold War belief that international relations could be handled through legal precedent, institutional frameworks, and moral authority.

[NOTE: Back in October 2025, I’ve discussed the Donroe Doctrine in more detail here. —JBM]

What we see instead is a return to classical geopolitical thinking; the explicit recognition of spheres of influence, hierarchies of power, and the primacy of strategic capacity over international law.