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The United States and Brazil conducted military training exercises involving roughly 1,000 personnel between the two states in the South American country, being the first time in American history to operate land troops in the region. The two countries signed an agreement of a confirmation to continue such training annually until at least 2028. The US also took this opportunity to namely to observe and improve Brazilian readiness and their respective system operations. This coincides with the new commander of the US Southern Command, General Laura Richardson meeting with the Defense Minister of Brazil last month, as well as a similar American trip to Colombia. I analyze this as a very stark move by the United States that is a sign that they want to create concrete preparations militarily. There are only a select number of states that we actively train in the scale of hundreds with, nearly all being close allies. This also coincides with the switch of Central American countries from supporting to Taiwan to China, and the Chinese aggressive move into Brazil particularly to build infrastructure. I think this is good for the United States in the sense of a sign of strength because of Brazil’s position in the region. With many much smaller states defecting to “the other side” a sign that the US and one of the hard powers of Latin America still standing together is a show of confidence and competence. To relate this back to international relations, one must keep in mind that the US is making a near identical move with Colombia, which is why therefore I would call this Cordon Sanitaire from the US in Latin America against China. Cordon Sanitaire comes from the French meaning to isolate countries against the regional alliance of power and ideology, and to block off other countries from diplomatically thriving that are on the “out team” and to stop enemy movements from spreading. In light of the recent jumps from support of Taiwan from many Central American countries and the growing support of China and involvement of China in the region, for the US to actively go around the region, solidifying connections, strengthening mild ones, and taking unprecedented steps to establish better ties, I see this is as clear Cordon Sanitaire against the Peoples’ Republic in a region the United States has nearly always, and expects to maintain, complete domination.
