HMM: Beijing’s Military Diplomacy Is Making Major Gains.

Military diplomacy can accrue significant soft and hard power advantages. In peacetime, it helps build goodwill, capacity and influence networks within foreign militaries. During conflict, it can enhance familiarity with preparedness levels, doctrine and command, or even underpin interoperability between forces. A cadet who trains abroad often carries that experience into senior leadership, shaping how a country thinks about security, alliances and even arms purchases.

China has always regarded the importance of military diplomacy as a critical element in how it engages with other countries. In LAC, however, these considerations often took a back seat to economic ties. Yet, China’s ambition to extend military cooperation with the region emerged in the Foreign Ministry’s 2008 Policy Paper, and was later reinforced in the country’s 2016 Policy Paper, which stated: “China will actively carry out military exchanges and cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries … in such fields as military training, personnel training and UN peacekeeping, [and] expand pragmatic cooperation in humanitarian relief, counter-terrorism and other non-traditional security fields.”

The policy papers explain why, a decade ago, China began a concerted effort to draw closer to LAC in the defense and security domain. It did so by launching the China-LAC High-Level Defense Forum, under the umbrella of the China-CELAC Forum, which deliberately excludes the U.S. and Canada. Over the past 10 years, this initiative has produced white papers and road maps for the region’s defense and security cooperation, while the ties have also thrived under non-traditional paths, such as the start of the China-LAC Military Medicine Forum.

Weird how China started playing in Latin America not long after then-SecState John Kerry pronounced the Monroe Doctrine dead.

But having quieted things down a bit in the Middle East — with Xi and Putin forced to the sidelines — Trump seems to be turning more of his attention to our own backyard.

Good.