Cuba

"Cuba has a chance to be a real role model for Latin America, as the region tries to figure out how to survive the coming global economic transition from high waste to high efficiency," writes Patrick Doherty of the New America Foundation. But he cautions that "economic change has to come faster than Raul is presently orchestrating." LINK

Monday’s event brought together Dimitri Simes of the Nixon Center, Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson -- former chief of staff to General Colonel Powell -- and New America’s Flynt Leverett and Steve Clemons to discuss the future of Cuba policy. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right. Dimitri Simes started the event lightly, speaking to Nixon’s love of Cuban cigars -- which he would enjoy quietly… more

The U.S. base at Guantanamo has been called many things. The "gulag of our time" (Amnesty International General Secretary Irene Khan, May 2005). "The key strategic intelligence platform in the war on terror" (Charles Stimson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, January 2007). The "legal equivalent of outer space" (unnamed Administration official). The right place for "the worst of a very bad lot" (Vice President Dick Cheney, January 2002) and… more

During the last six years, the U.S. Administration has held nearly 800 alleged terror suspects without trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. 500 of these men have now been released, but their stories - and the stories of those who remain - are largely unknown. Fragments have emerged in books and interviews, and in declassified accounts from the detainees' lawyers, but until now there has been no comprehensive overview of all their cases. On March 12 the New America Foundation… more

'A Family Business' (Finanical Times Analysis Online)

To the generation of Cuban exiles that has spent almost half a century dreaming of the day Fidel Castro left power, last week came as a cruel disappointment.

While the legendary revolutionary leader finally stepped down as head of state, the communist government he set up maintains its grip on a calm and stable Cuba. With no sign of a fundamental policy shift in Havana, Washington is also continuing the economic embargo introduced… more

Joshua Kurlantzick: It's Time to End the Cuban Embargo (Dallas Morning News opinion piece)

...John McCain has indicated he would continue the current policy. And as Washington policy analyst Steve Clemons notes, Mike Huckabee, who backed greater engagement with Cuba when he was governor of Arkansas, now says he wants to put still more pressure on Havana.

So, even as Cuba and the world changes, the candidates seem stuck in the past, keeping a shrinking number of Cuban-American voters… more

Castro, primaries - food, fuel for blogosphere (San Francisco Chronicle)

It came as a shock that, after 50 years in power, Castro has conceded he is no longer physically up to the job of running Cuba and is transferring the reins of power (well almost) to his brother, Raul. What this all means was taken up at links.sfgate.com/ZCNE by Steven C. Clemons. He says that what is lost amid all the reporting of the moment is that… more

U.S.-Cuba Foreign Policy (American AM Talk Radio/WWPR)

"Our embargo does withhold certain amounts of economic activity, but its very clear that Cuba has aligned itself globally that it can circumvent us and that means we are simply in an ineffective situation where we are no longer relevant," said Steve Clemons in an interview with Henry Raines. Clemons directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation.

Listen to the audio from Clemon's interview here and please visit http://americanam.podomatic.com.… more

A broker's role for Canada (Toronto Star)

...Patrick Doherty, the director of the Washington-based U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative [New America Foundation], said any such effort by Ottawa and like-minded allies could be "catalytic'' for any change coming with a new president.

OK, which candidate is prepared to break U.S.-Cuba relations out of the anachronistic Cold War cocoon and initiate a new course?

Barack Obama has sketched out the initial steps of a changed direction already, and Hillary Clinton in response said she saw no reason to change from the Bush administration's course until a triggering event appeared.

When Fidel Castro hinted in December he would step down, I asked the Clinton campaign whether it would change course, and was told if something significant… more