America's Backyard

America's backyard is a concept often used in political science and international relations contexts to refer to the sphere of influence of the United States.

Somewhat analogous to the Russian concept of near abroad (Russian: ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), America's backyard is used to refer to the USA's traditional areas of dominance, especially Latin America.
The term has recently been prominent in popular media with reference to threats to US national security (including Russian military exercises and Middle Eastern terrorism) used to contrast such threats at home with those on traditional fronts in Europe or the Middle East. America's Backyard is also used on occasion to refer to national parks and public lands in the US, as well as the American heartland more generally.

Drawing on the use of the term to refer to the surrounding area or neighborhood in which one resides, "America's backyard" has been referred to as the area within which the United States, as the "homeowner", has asserted some proprietary right or sought to limit outside influence. Conversely, "America's Backyard" is referred to the area within which actions by enemy or competing powers might be feared or seen as provocative. This has much in common with the Russian near abroad, used primarily in reference to the former Soviet Bloc countries; "near Abroad" signified that "Russia [claimed] rights in the region that transcend traditional diplomatic conventions".

There are differences between the terms, in that "near abroad" for Russia referred to countries which had previously been in political union with Russia until the fall of the Soviet Union (and after independence were initially part of the closely tied Commonwealth of Independent States), whereas the Central and South American countries considered part of America's backyard have never been politically tied to the United States (with the exception of Panama). In addition, "America's backyard" has been used in a domestic context to refer to national parks and other open land, whereas "near abroad" refers solely to foreign (though proximate) areas and cannot be used in a public land context.

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