| a diplomatic policy of the U.S., first presented in 1933 by President Roosevelt, for the encouragement of friendly relations and mutual defense among the nations of the Western Hemisphere. |
A United States foreign policy doctrine, adopted by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, designed to improve relations with Latin America. A reaction to the exploitative dollar diplomacy of the early 1900s, the Good Neighbor policy encouraged interaction between the United States and Latin America as equals. In the post–World War II era, however, the United States has often reverted to dollar diplomacy and gunboat diplomacy to impose its will on the countries of Latin America.