Exporting Revolution: Cuba's Global Solidarity by Margaret Randall (review)

In Exporting Revolution, Margaret Randall, a poet who has lived for an extended period in, and written extensively on, Cuba, explores Havana's efforts at helping other countries of the South through disaster relief, health, educational, sports, and cultural missions, as well as wars of national liberation. Rather than exporting violent revolution, as critics of Cuba's foreign policy have asserted, she argues that the revolution that Cuba has promoted and continues to promote is one of human liberation and development. The book is both an exploration of an understudied theme and a personal expose of experiences in Cuba, and the experiences of some Cubans who have participated in Havana's many international missions.

Randall poses the question: "what compels a small, poor […] country […] to be so generous with those who have less, often in some distant part of the world?" (19). According to the author, this selfless solidarity, as well as Cuba's cultural impact, particularly in film, music, and literature has given Cuba more notoriety than its small size would suggest. The key conclusion is that overall, Cuba has given more than it has received via an altruistic foreign policy.

Exporting Revolution is not solely about Cuba's internationalism. Randall discusses Cuba's domestic achievements—in health, education, literature—extensively to point out that these accomplishments serve as the ideational foundation and motivation for the island's global solidarity towards the worlds neediest countries.

To support her principal argument, Randall first examines the assistance that Cuba offered to national liberation movements in Africa and to guerrilla groups in Latin America. While the United States saw these actions as exporting violent revolution, Randall perceives them as efforts by Cuba to help people to shed themselves of repressive leaders and imperial aggression. These were Cuba's initials efforts at promoting change abroad. However, the cases that are most important to the principal argument of the book are the more recent efforts by Cuba to employ a humanitarian, non-lethal foreign policy. To discuss these cases, Randall has chapters on Cuba's educational, health, and sports missions abroad. Throughout the book, she also uses personal vignettes from Cubans who have served in these internationalist missions. The basic conclusion is that, while hardships are par for the course, most of these individuals volunteered to help others in need and value those experiences tremendously, even if initially some of them felt some pressure to participate.

Ideologically critical readers will undoubtedly argue that Randall is promoting a na¨ıve and idealized view of Cuba's internationalism. However, her positive perspective on Cuba's foreign missions is no more or less romanticized than the view that US foreign policy promotes development and democracy. Moreover, Randall does not sweep Cuba's flaws under the rug, as some analysts do. She notes that repression has occurred (something she experienced while in Cuba), that there have been some miscarriages of justice, and that Cuba now receives much needed remuneration for its humanitarian missions, suggesting a less-than-selfless solidarity. Nevertheless, Randall concludes that in the final analysis Cuba's internationalism has been both positive and mostly generous, as opposed to other states, like the United States, whose development aid almost always exploits developing countries.

One weakness in the book is that not enough evidence is marshalled to support the main argument, owing partly to extensive discussion of domestic aspects of Cuba's history. No doubt there is a connection between the principles of the Revolution, and Cuban history in general, and the island's current humanitarian missions around the world. But because Randall's argument is bold, more evidence is required. The key argument is certainly supported by interviews and the personal statements of Cubans involved in these missions. However, the book lacks a systematic analysis of the principal claim – that Cuba's missions are on balance mostly altruistic. Nevertheless, the claim is thought-provoking and certainly open to further empirical inquiry.

While there are numerous journalistic...