The Perspectives of Conservative American Think Tanks on U.S. Leadership for Latin America and the Administration of Donald Trump

As perspectivas dos Think Tanks conservadores americanos sobre a liderança dos EUA na América Latina e o governo de Donald Trump

In this article, our focus is twofold: we seek to understand how relevant conservative/libertarian think tanks perceive America’s position and policies toward Latin America in the 21st century, and their evaluation of Donald Trump’s foreign policy in Latin America. We carried out a qualitative content analysis (QCA) of the documents produced between 2016-2022 about Latin America during the Trump administration by four institutes – Heritage Foundation, Hudson Institute, American Foreign Policy Council, and the Cato Institute. Our findings reveal a consistent concern with how American leadership should advance conservative and libertarian values abroad, and a shared perception that Trump fell short in this regard — a failure seen as undermining U.S. regional leadership. This study seeks to address a gap in the literature on the perspectives of American conservative knowledge regimes toward Latin America, and to contribute to our understanding of how these political actors frame regional problems and legitimize their policy agendas.

Key words
think tanks; American foreign policy; American conservatism; Trump administration; Latin America; populism; qualitative content analysis