U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative: Press

Administration's Foreign Policy Includes Heavy Dose of Humility | USA Today

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:37:00 -0400

Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to secretary of State Colin Powell and is a frequent critic of the George W. Bush administration, said Obama and Clinton were delivering long-overdue candor. "What a refreshing moment it is to have a president ...

First Step in a Cuban Dance | Global Post

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:27:00 -0400

"It's idiocy" to retain a counter-productive Cold War policy, said Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, and now leads a Cuban policy initiative for the New America Foundation. ...

Obama Administration Seeking an Incremental Path Towards Normalization with Cuba | Dar Al-Hayat

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:35:00 -0400

... the summit of the Americas this Friday in Trinidad and Tobago, is a "big shift from the policies of the George Bush administration" according to Patrick Doherty, Director of the US-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation. ...

Retired Military Officers Urge Ending Cuba Travel Ban

Communications — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:23:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. - On Monday, April 13, 2009, a group of 12 former senior U.S. military officials sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to support and sign pending Congressional legislation that would repeal the travel ban for all Americans who wish to visit Cuba.

Click here for text of the letter.

New Cuba Policy

Communications — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:17:00 -0400

Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama announced changes in policies towards Cuba today, including easing travel restrictions for family members, remittances and gifts to Cuba, and also looking to open up telecommunications with the country.

House Unveils Travel Bill, Lugar Calls for Talks, Menendez Sulks

Communications — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:36:00 -0400

Director of New America Foundation's U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative, Patrick Doherty details reaction to Cuba Travel Bill in The Havana Note:

Dorgan and Enzi Announce Cuba Travel Promotions Act

Communications — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:51:00 -0400

Director of New America Foundation's American Strategy Program and Publisher of The Washington Note, Steve Clemons details Tuesday's announcement of the Cuba Travel Promotion Act:

US-Cuba Policy Change is Coming...

read more

NGOs Hail Congressional Moves to Ease Embargo | Inter Press Service

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:46:00 -0400

... and that there is momentum behind the efforts to make broader and more lasting changes in policy," said the groups, which also included the US-Cuba Policy Initiative of the New America Foundation (NAF) and the Latin America Working Group here. ...

Will Obama Shift Policy on Cuba? | BBC News

Communications — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:38:00 -0500

... in American foreign policy," write Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief-of-staff to Colin Powell, and Patrick Doherty, from the New America Foundation. ...

New Castro, Old Question for Cuba | Chicago Tribune

Communications — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:14:00 -0500

... shine an unflattering spotlight on their economic management, said Patrick Doherty of the New America Foundation, a Washington public policy institute. ...

Lawrence Wilkerson in Foreign Policy | 'Seven Questions for Larry Wilkerson'

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:46:00 -0400

Foreign Policy: What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each of the candidates in foreign policy? Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Both have strengths. I’m not quite sure what I would describe as Obama’s weaknesses, not because I’m trying to say that he’s perfect but because he’s so unflappable and so far his pronouncements have been so solid. I’m not happy with his reluctance to be more forward on U.S.-Cuba policy. I’m not happy with the need to be more nuanced in Afghanistan; the answer is simply more troops. I’m not that content so far on the economic crisis; there are some things that need to be done and said to the American people, who are carrying on average 13 credit cards, 2-3 maxed out to the hilt. American people bear some responsibility for this crisis. With McCain, I’m alarmed by the lack of sophistication on issues such as Iran; the bomb Iran [idea] seemed to come out of [McCain’s] passion more than his judgment. I’m alarmed by the people around him; [many] are radicals. They are just like the Wolfowitzes and the Pearls of the world. Calling them conservatives offends the title. I have grave difficulty… more

U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative in Scripps News | 'October Surprise?'

Communications — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:39:00 -0400

Could there be an October surprise headed our way from the Caribbean? That's what some Cuba watchers are warning.

After being pummeled by four hurricanes, Cuba is a wreck, with 500,000 homes damaged, 200,000 people homeless and 30 percent of all crops ruined. Schools and hospitals are out of commission, the electrical grid is damaged and food is scarce.

What better time for another boat exodus from the communist island?

That's the thinking of Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff for Colin Powell when he was secretary of state. Wilkerson now is chairman of the U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation. LINK

Richard Clarke Says Cuba Not a State Sponsor of Terror

Communications — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:31:00 -0400

Cuba, Latin America and U.S. Grand Strategy

Communications — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:45:00 -0400

The U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative talks a lot about the need for a new policy towards Cuba. And we should. Fifty years of failure is a shameful, bi-partisan indictment of how policy is made in Washington.

As we will continue to show, more people, like Senator Arlen Specter, recognize that a change in Cuba policy is on the way. But change for change's sake is foolish, and could easily backfire on the United States.

Fortunately, the emerging consensus on changing our relationship with Cuba coincides with another consensus in Washington, that America needs a major overhaul of all our relations with Latin America. And these two trends are occurring concurrently with the rising influence of Hispanic voters.

But both movements lack strategic coherence.

In my latest post on The Havana Note, I outline a new strategic framework for approaching Latin America, strengthening the rationale for changing Cuba policy in a decisive fashion:

The single greatest challenge facing the U.S. in the coming decades is to shape an international order that can meet rising global demand for energy, resources, urban land, and transportation--limited significantly by climate change and ecosystem depletion.
Latin America is already focused on these problems, but the United States still clings to a 20th Century model of our national interest in the Western Hemisphere, dominated by oil, anti-communism, and neo-liberal trade policies.
The 5th OAS Summit, in April 2009, will present the next President with the opportunity to turn the page with the region, end the Cuban embargo, and redefine U.S. regional interests around sustainability and economic inclusion.

I hope you find it provocative. For more, read the full post here.

Patrick Doherty
Director, U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative
Blogging at: The Havana Note
Deputy Director, American Strategy Program
New America Foundation

For more details on the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative, please contact Patrick Doherty at doherty@newamerica.net, 202-986-2700.

What would Richard Nixon do on Cuba? He would end the embargo.

Communications — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:58:00 -0400

Watch the video here.

Writing just before his death in 1994, Nixon called on the U.S. to end the failed policy of regime change. Nixon, the arch-Cold Warrior, knew that with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the withdrawal of its troops from Angola, Cuba posed no threat to the United States. It is time, Nixon said nearly 15 years ago, for the United States to support the Cuban people.

What was true then is even plainer today. The New America Foundation's U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative and the Nixon Center hosted leading Nixon, Cuba, and national security practitioners on July 28, 2008 for a game-changing conversation about U.S. policy toward the 11 million people 90 miles off our southern shores. Moderated by Steve Clemons, the speakers included, Dimitri K. Simes of the Nixon Center, Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director on the National Security Council and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.), former chief of staff at the State Department.

Click here to listen to Dimitri K. Simes, president of the Nixon Center, talking about Nixon's views on Cuba.

Of course, Nixon had another problem with Cuba policy. He recognized that with the end of the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy would lose its strategic coherence and fall victim to petty domestic politics.

He was right. U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War is calculated less on the basis of the national interest and increasingly on the basis of the domestic political power of single-interest groups. Cuba is not alone in this regard. As Simes, Leverett, and Wilkerson all remarked, the U.S. is reeling from equally ill-advised policies in the Middle East.

Cuba remains the premiere symbol of this dysfunction. A small group of highly motivated exiles have hijacked U.S. policy not only toward their homeland, but in the process have compromised our standing in the world, and our relations with all the countries in Latin America.

When the next President swears to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States on January 20, 2009, the world will be watching. Will the United States once again conceive and conduct our foreign policy based on the domestic political power of single-interest groups or will we base our national security decision making on the firm foundation of the national interest? Will Congress let him?

Cuba policy can be a signal of change or a symbol of dysfunction. It is time to choose.

Click here for the video of the entire event.

Patrick Doherty
Director, U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative
Blogging at: The Havana Note
Deputy Director, American Strategy Program
New America Foundation

For more details on the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative, please contact Patrick Doherty at doherty@newamerica.net, 202-986-2700.

Lawrence Wilkerson testimony in United Press International | 'Witness: Cheney Probably Knew of Torture'

Communications — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:17:00 -0400

A former U.S. military official says U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney may have known military personnel were using torture techniques on Iraqi detainees.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told a House panel he thought leadership failed "at the highest levels of the Pentagon, in the vice president's office and perhaps even in the Oval Office," The Washington Times reported Thursday.

Wilkerson's testimony followed a report by a human rights group that detainees in U.S. military facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba., Iraq and Afghanistan were subjected to beatings and other aggressive interrogation techniques... LINK

Lawrence Wilkerson in the Atlantic | ''Disgrace', Ctd.'

Communications — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:37:00 -0400

[The Daily Dish:]...Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff explains what this means in terms any morally responsible person would understand:

"As I compiled my dossier for Secretary Powell, as I did further research, and as my views grew firmer and firmer, I needed frequently to reread that memo. I needed to balance, in my own mind, the overwhelming evidence that my own government had sanctioned abuse and torture which, at its worst, had led to the murder of 25 detainees in a total of at least a 100 detainee deaths. Death, Mr. Chairman, seems to me to be the ultimate torture, indisputable and final. We had murdered 25 or more people in detention; that was the clear low point of the evidence..." LINK

Steve Clemons and Lawrence Wilkerson in Financial Times | 'A Family Business'

Communications — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:15:00 -0500

'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 by John F. Kennedy. ...

“I don’t believe this administration, with its tin ear, is going to be productive in any way,” says Col Lawrence Wilkerson, formerly Colin Powell’s chief of staff at the State department, speaking about Mr Castro’s resignation. “But I do believe this might spark the two Democratic [presidential] candidates and perhaps the Republican candidate to begin a policy review,” he adds, saying that such a move could lead to the end of restrictions on visiting the country and an easing of the embargo.

Steven Clemons, a foreign policy expert at the Washington-based New America Foundation, says loosening trade and travel restrictions with Cuba would be the most effective and low-cost means for the next US president to signal… more

Steve Clemons in Dallas Morning News | 'Joshua Kurlantzick: It's Time to End the Cuban Embargo'

Communications — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:27:00 -0500

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 happy – and leaving the rest of us less safe.