Recently, international public opinion has paid much attention to the North American expansion strategy of President Donald Trump's administration. This is a new geopolitical framework to reshape the strategic presence of the United States with a scope stretching from Greenland to the South American nation of Guyana.
The scale of this security belt makes some experts associate and compare it with the strategies to increase influence taking place in the Middle East region.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth introduced details of this plan earlier this month. He shared with the media that the US has outlined a new strategic map covering the area from Greenland through the Gulf of America to the Panama Canal. The Pentagon has designated this area as expanded North America.
Mr. Hegseth explained that countries and territories located north of the equator will not be classified into the Southern Hemisphere group in the usual way. Instead, the entire vast area is considered the direct security belt of the United States.
Faced with this new perspective, Professor Graeme Garrard at the University of Cardiff in Wales made his own comments on social media. He believes that the concept of expanding North America can be understood as an increase in the influence of the United States itself. This scholar also recalled that the United States has long maintained a very large influence on the political space and independence of neighboring countries in the same hemisphere.
Similarly, many observers also place this vision next to historical movements in the Middle East, where some groups advocate expanding the living space on vast lands.
Professor Julia Steinberger at the University of Lausanne shared the view that Mr. Hegseth's plan carries noteworthy security risks. This female expert linked it to territorial upheavals in Lebanon and Iran to express concern about the next steps of the US towards Greenland, Cuba, Canada and Mexico.
From a historical perspective, the ideas of a vast space of influence were once the foundation for the development of the United States, typically the idea of Obvious Fate in the mid-19th century. This thinking contributed to reshaping the border with Mexico as well as creating a premise for the US presence in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Haiti. The United States also devoted many resources to building and controlling the Panama Canal.
Mr. Hegseth's recent statements about protecting the core values of the region seem to also carry the sound of this historical period. President Donald Trump himself has repeatedly reiterated his desire to increase influence in Cuba, a topic that has spanned US political history for the past 2 centuries.
