Cuba’s Foreign Relations in a Post-Soviet World by Michael H. Erisman (review)

I 16 The Latin Americanist Spring 2005 for further work. As, along with most readers, this reviewer lacks familiarity with all the relevant literature, I cannot say whether the entire set of contributions adequately represents the approaches included. Still, I finished the reading with some ideas I would like to pursue further, and others I find less useful, but now understand better. As a first cut, that may be more than sufficient, but the work also makes clear that developing a multi-disciplinary approach to a theory ofjusticehnjustice will take more than an illustrative collection of essays. Linn Hammergren The WorldBank Cuba’sForeign Relations in a Post-Soviet World.By MichaelH. Erisman Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2000, p.270, $24.95. In his latest book on Cuban foreign policy, H. Michael Erisman continues the excellent work from his previous books. He utilises the framework he has developed previously (in Cubas International Relations: The Anatomy o f a Narionalistic Foreign Policy, 1985 and Cuban Foreign Policy Confronts a New International Order, 1991,edited with John M. Kirk) and uses it to examine Cuba’s foreign policy in the new world order that has appeared since 1992,prompted by the disappearance of the Soviet Union. This latest book is an excellent and thoughtful work on explaining Cuba’s reaction to this situation. It would be of great benefit to anyone interested in Cuban foreign policy and shows very good value at $24.95. The framework he uses to explain Cuba’s foreign policy is three fold. Firstly, he discusses the specific nature of fidelista Cuba; secondly, he examines the role of counterdependency with regards to a surrogate/superclient theses in particular with its relationship to Moscow; and finally, he analyzes how Cuban foreign policy has had to adapt to the constant hostility from the United States. First, Erisman examinesCuba’s foreign policy from the time of the victory of the Cuban Revolution to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This period is analysed in three separate chapters: 1959-1972, 1972-1985, and 1985 to 1992. This is a monumental task for anyone to attempt in a mere three chapters due to the nuances and vigorous nature of Cuba’s foreign policy in this Book Reviews 117 period. He admits that his coverage will not be comprehensive as the focus of the book is after all the period since 1992. This said, the author’s analysis of this long period is very good and is extremely beneficial to further the reader’s understanding. The role of counterdependency and the individual nature of fidelista Cuba constitute the core of his explanations for many of Cuba’s actions. However, a slight shortcoming throughout the book, I believe, becomes apparent. On some of the issues examined, it is a little short on the reasons why events took place. For example, in the case of Cuban involvement in Africa in the mid 1970s the author does not mention the fact that the world situation at this time became favourable to Cuba and this gave the government in Havana the opportunity to become involved in Africa. Due to the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal the United States became more inward looking. Moreover, the overthrow of the Salazar dynasty in Portugal in the 1974 coup resulted in the commencement of civil wars in Africa. This slight shortfall takes place on a number of occasions, for example, the omission of Fidel Castro’s “Secret Speech” to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba in August 1968 (here he gives an extremely detailed account of the relationship between Havana and Moscow at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis) or the importance of Allende’s victory in the 1970 Chilean Presidential elections. This showed that Moscow’s more cautious approach was achieving results whereas Havana’sradical policies were not. In the later period he fails to show that relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union had changed dramatically even before the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The 1990 trade agreement between the two was vastly different from previous ones and I think that the book would have benefited from an examination of the importance of the...