One of the most crucial abilities for countries to have in foreign policy is changing with the times. Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) briefly spoke with The Floridian on the need to adapt as circumstances change, chiefly at a time when Venezuela, Russia, China, and Iran have worked together to dodge US economic sanctions.
Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick said that foreign affairs "are not always static" and instead "are always changing."
Additionally, she said that the United States must always "examine how we see the nature of our relationships with China, with Russia, throughout the entire world and international community." In other words, what we have taken as a given in foreign policy must be set aside and regularly updated.
For example, Professor Javier Corrales at Amherst College spoke in February that authoritarian regimes (such as Venezuela) have "hardliners" (supporters) and "soft-liners" (opposition). The point of sanctions, he said, was to encourage the "soft-liners" to take action against the hardliners to lift the sanctions. Should this fail, however (like in Venezuela), the hardliners dig in their heels and exert even greater control.
Similarly, Representative Cory Mills (R-FL) said in March that economic sanctions against Venezuela are becoming ineffective as the Maduro regime has found new ways to skirt around them. Moreover, American adversaries such as Russia, Iran, and China are buying what the Venezuelans are selling while helping each other evade their own sanctions imposed by the US.
"Sanctions against Venezuela’s murderous regime are crucial, but if they have ceased to be effective measures to combat Maduro’s reign of terror, then we must evaluate those sanctions in order to help the Venezuelan people," Rep. Mills told The Floridian.
As a result, he added that "the U.S. needs to solidify its relationships and partnership in Latin America and offer our partners better economic options and opportunities than those Russia, China, and Iran are offering."
Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick expressed a similar sentiment, saying she is "always concerned about what is going on in Latin America and South America. And so as the world is changing, we need to be changing with it. And I think the positions will change. We are looking at how to be more dynamic, as dynamic as the situations we face," Cherfilus-McCormick concluded.
