Spheres of Influence: Two Hundred Years of the Monroe Doctrine

National Archives Museum
Washington, DC

In person and online

To mark the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, a panel of scholars will discuss the history as well as the current use of the best-known U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere. Highlighted in an otherwise routine annual message delivered to Congress by President James Monroe in December 1823, the doctrine warned European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs in the Western Hemisphere.

Sara Bon-Harper, Executive Director, James Monroe’s Highland. and Scott H. Harris, Executive Director, University of Mary Washington Museums, will lead the discussion of the three main elements of the Monroe Doctrine: non-colonization, non-intervention, and separate spheres of influence for the Americas and Europe. Our panelists are Melissa Martinez, assistant professor, Department of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Mary Washington; Daniel Preston, founding editor (retired) of the Papers of James Monroe at the University of Mary Washington; Jay Sexton, Rich and Nancy Kinder Chair of Constitutional Democracy Professor of History and Director of the Kinder Institute at the University of Missouri; and Ray Walser, professor of practice at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations.

This program is presented in partnership with James Monroe Museum and James Monroe’s Highland.