Prefer to listen? To hear this entire conversation, and more episodes in the weeks ahead, follow Ones and Tooze wherever you get your podcasts.

In the aftermath of the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by the American military, U.S. President Donald Trump said 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil would be turned over to the United States by the new Venezuelan government. It was Trump’s first explicit embrace of what he calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” an expanded version of the Monroe Doctrine under which the United States claims the right to control economic decisions made across the entire Western Hemisphere. But what exactly motivates that policy—whether capitalist profit or geoeconomic strategy or even cultural considerations—remains unclear.

Will U.S. oil companies benefit from the intervention in Venezuela? What sort of economics might inform the sphere-of-influence policy? Or is the Donroe Doctrine more about a show of force in the region?

In the aftermath of the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by the American military, U.S. President Donald Trump said 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil would be turned over to the United States by the new Venezuelan government. It was Trump’s first explicit embrace of what he calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” an expanded version of the Monroe Doctrine under which the United States claims the right to control economic decisions made across the entire Western Hemisphere. But what exactly motivates that policy—whether capitalist profit or geoeconomic strategy or even cultural considerations—remains unclear.

Will U.S. oil companies benefit from the intervention in Venezuela? What sort of economics might inform the sphere-of-influence policy? Or is the Donroe Doctrine more about a show of force in the region?

Those are just a few of the questions that came up in my recent conversation with FP economics columnist Adam Tooze on the podcast we co-host, Ones and Tooze. What follows is an excerpt, edited for length and clarity. For the full conversation, look for Ones and Tooze wherever you get your podcasts. And check out Adam’s Substack newsletter.

Cameron Abadi: One theory of imperialism is that it’s motivated by the interests of major capitalists—Lenin’s theory of imperialism as capital accumulation, for example. In what ways does that framework apply to Trump’s Venezuela policy?

Adam Tooze: The fact that we are asking this question is itself astonishing, that theories of imperialism from 120 years ago, from the age of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, might be relevant. And I think they undeniably are. There is at least a basic plausibility to the Leninist resource-imperialist kind of theory. I mean, is the United States interested in oil? Well, of course........

© Foreign Policy