The United States and Cuba

Intimate Enemies

Marifeli Pérez-Stable

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780415804516
• eBook ISBN: 9781135221355
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

A great power and a weaker, rival neighbor can eventually have normal relations. Prior to 1959, Cuba and the United States didn't have a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship, and amid the Cold War, Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union made U.S.-Cuba normality even more elusive. What the United States and Cuba now face is relating to each other as normally as possible, a task made all the more difficult by the shadow of the Cold War. After 1989, regime change returned to the heart of U.S.-Cuba policy, a major obstacle for Washington-Havana dialogue. In turn, Cuban leaders have generally shirked their responsibility to do their part to ease the fifty-year enmity with the United States.

This book systematically covers the background of U.S.-Cuban relations after the Cold War and explores tensions that extend into the twenty-first century. The author explores the future of this strained relationship under Obama's presidency and in a post-Castro Cuba.

Table of contents

• Other Titles in the Contemporary Inter-American Relations
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
• 1 THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA HAVE NEVER HAD NORMAL RELATIONS
• 2 “NEXT CHRISTMAS IN HAVANA”
• 3 “HALF DRUNK AND THROWING BOTTLES AT EACH OTHER”
• 4 “WE NEED TO DE-AMERICANIZE THE PROBLEM OF CUBA”
• 5 “THE POLICY WE’VE HAD IN PLACE FOR 50 YEARS HASN’T WORKED”
• MEXICO AND CUBA
• NOTES
• INDEX