Pushing the Boundaries: How the US Redefined the Atlantic Border of the Western Hemisphere prior to the 1941 Occupation of Iceland

Abstract

The article dwells on how the US administration redefined the Western Hemisphere in the 1930s, as special emphasis is placed on its Atlantic borders and, thus, motivations that prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to include Iceland in the territorial zone of the Monroe Doctrine. The analysis of public debates on this issue, with prominent officials, geographers, and analysts being involved, leads to the conclusion that first signs of gradual departure from “half-and-half” hemispherical principle of global space structuring upon which the Monroe doctrine was premised became visible after WWI. This process accelerated in the 1930s amid the deteriorating security environment that rendered this principle obsolete and led to tangible foreign political steps. It is also noted that any attempts of the academic community to find a well-substantiated justification for the politically motivated rearrangement of the Western Hemisphere boundaries were unsuccessful.