U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative: Recent and Upcoming Events

After an introduction by Patrick Doherty, the Deputy Director of the American Strategy Program and Director of the U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative at New America, Anne Louise Bardach discussed the her recently published book Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana, and Washington.  Bardach described how an article primarily focused on the Cubana Airlines attack and exiled Cuban militants, including Luis Posada Carriles, transformed into a three-part book covering Fidel Castro's long death, the Castro fascination, and

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

Join the New America Foundation/American Strategy Program for a presentation by Leonard Weinglass, defense attorney for Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González, also known as the Cuban Five.

These five individuals were sent by the Cuban government to gather intelligence on extremist Cuban exile organizations such as the Cuban American National Foundation, Brothers to the Rescue, Commandos F4 and Alpha 66 -- some of which have been allegedly complicit in numerous terrorist acts on the… more

Polls indicate the great majority of Americans now see our 47-year old Cuba policy for the utter failure it is. Even the Cuban-American community, heretofore solidly behind the policy, is moving rapidly in the other direction. Polls taken in the congressional districts of Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, two of the policy's most iron-clad advocates, show even the majority of their constituents to disagree -- 66% expressing disagreement in Lincoln Diaz-Balart's district and 69% in Mario Diaz-Balart's. Truly a… more

The New America Foundation launched its 21st Century US-Cuba Policy Initiative at an event headlined by former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson and Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ). The event was moderated by U.S. foreign policy expert Steven Clemons, who directs the American Strategy Program at New America. The event follows the return of Colonel Wilkerson and Mr. Clemons from a trip to Cuba.

Colonel Wilkerson expressed dissatisfaction with the current U.S. policy toward the island, which he… more

With unfolding developments pointing toward a possible thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations, the question—whither Cuba after Castro?—has already begun to be mined by journalists and scholars. Award-winning journalist Ann Louise Bardach has been at the forefront of these debates, with unique insight into the politics and culture of Cuba. Bardach recently published the first-ever English edition of The Prison Letters of Fidel Castro. The work, originally edited by Luis Conte Aguero, is a collection of letters regarded as the single most… more