Foreign Policy Toward Cuba: Isolation or Engagement? ed. by Michele Zebich-Knos, Heather N. Nicol (review)

The Latiri Americaizist, Spuittg 2007 FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD CUBA: ISOLAT~ON OR ENGAGEMENT? BY MICHELE ZEBICH-KNOS AND HEATHER N. NICOL (EDS). LANHAM,MD: LEXINGTON BOOKS, 2005, P. 285, $26.95. Perhaps no other country has attracted the attention of the United States more than the island of Cuba. Extremes of closeness and animosity have characterized United States-Cuba diplomatic relations since 7 January 1959, when the United States recognized the new Cuban government but maintained serious reservations about Fidel Castro (5). Philip Bonsai, who replaced Earl T. Smith as the U S . Ambassador in Havana, was instructed by the State Department to be ”cooland distant” to the new regime (5).Following this ”cool and distant” diplomatic approach, a series of events would unfold, further deteriorating relations between the two nations. Castro’s agrarian reform of 1959; the warming of Cuba-Soviet relations in the 1960s onward; Castro’s expropriation of American companies; the US suspension of Cuba’s sugar quota; and the nationalization of US assets was the final incident to break the ”camel’s back” thus leading to tense relations ever since. As an indication of its displeasure at the Cuban government actions, the United States in 1960imposed an economic embargo on Cuba restricting trade on all products except for food and medicine (5). This economic embargo, know as a ”program of economic denial,” sought to increase the cost to the Soviet Union of ”keeping” Cuba as one of its satellite allies, thus making it difficult for Castro to export revolution and demonstrate to the Cuban people that communism was not a viable option for their country. The final action taken by the United States to isolate the island of Cuba from the international system occurred in January 1961 when the United States closed its Havana embassy, thus cutting all diplomatic ties with the communist island and Castro’s regime in power. Zebich-Knos and Nicol’s Foveip Policy fozuavd Cuba explores the very different foreign-policy positions on Cuba taken by the North American countries of Canada and the United States and contrasts them with Caribbean and Cubanforeign-policy approachestoward North America. Thecontributors to the book present a thorough assessment of just how one small island can provoke such an enduring foreign-policy response rooted in the Cold War but still intact today (xi). The book uses a wide range of perspectives, paying particular attention to the way the Western Hemisphere understands Cuba and the approaches of Cuban and Caribbean foreign policy toward North America. This hard-line approach toward Cuba and Castro’s regime by the United States became more visible with the unveiling, on 20 May 2002, of President George W. Bush’s”Initiative for a New Cuba.” Under this approach toward communist Cuba, the Bush administration incorporated “a carrotand -stick method, which urged the Cuban government to undertake political and economic reforms and conduct free and fair elections next year (2003) for the National Assembly” and ”open its economy and end discriminatory practices against Cuban workers” (35). The Bush administration’s foreign policy towards Cuba differs radically Book Reviews from the Clinton administration’s overall foreign policy, which emphasized engagement and enlargement (33). While the Bush administration’s goal is to completely isolate the Fidelista regime from the international community and use Cuba as a test case for global moral imperatives and the universal applicability of Western or US. stylepolitical systems, Clinton’sforeignpolicy of engagement and enlargement uses ”soft” power, that is, an ”indirect way to exercise power which co-opts people rather than coerce them” (33).Joseph Nye, in his book Soft Power: TlieMeaizs to Success in World Politics (2004),defines soft power as ”theability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country’s culture, political ideals, and policies” (x). Canadian foreign policy towards Cuba has also oscillated between isolation and engagement during different administrations. Prime Minister Trudeau (1968-1979and 1980-1984)was very interested in warming relations between Havana and Ottawa whereas Prime Minister Mulroney (1984-1993) was widely recognized as being the most pro-American Canadian prime minister (17). Despite the oscillation, Canada’s approach toward Cuba has been...