Cuba's Foreign Relations in a Post-Soviet World

Latin American Politics and Society, Fall 2003 by Vanden, Harry E

Erisman, H. Michael. Cuba's Foreign Relations in a Post-Soviet World. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. Map, tables, bibliography, index. 288 pp.; hardcover $55, paperback $24.95.

Michael Erisman has written a solid, scholarly analysis of Cuban foreign relations. At a time of intense-and divergent-pressures to rethink the nature of Cuban-U.S. relations, he presents a thorough, dispassionate treatment of the development of Cuban relations with the United States and other nations. Along with a careful overview of Cuban foreign policy since the revolution, he depicts a historical context in which to consider the evolution of that revolution.

Erisman makes the case early on for the uniqueness of Cuban foreign policy. He begins with the last lines of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken": "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,/ I took the one less traveled by,/and that has made all the difference." Cuba is, Erisman contends, one of those countries that has been a trailblazer rather than a follower. It has traveled down paths not taken by any other modern Latin American nation. The book endeavors to explain and explore the Cuban road, "devoting special attention to the foreign policy survival strategies that the Revolution has employed in the attempt to make a successful transition to the new international order of the post-Cold War world" and "to its continuing tumultuous relationship with the United States."

At a time when pressure is increasing from some (mostly Miami-based) political groups for the Bush administration to adopt the hardline view that Cuban foreign policy has not changed from its more strident, ideologically based earlier years, Erisman lays out four distinct perspectives: realist pragmatism, revolutionary messianics, Fidelista personalismo, and the surrogate-superclient thesis. He carefully examines each, with particular attention to developing and analyzing the realist pragmatism view. This approach, which he believes has the greatest explanatory power for Cuban foreign policy, is most adequately explained with reference to the realist school of international relations. That is, Cuban foreign policy is ultimately best explained by Cuban understanding and definition of exactly what has constituted Cuban national interests. Further, it is argued that this approach is particularly useful for understanding Cuban foreign policy in the post-Soviet period. Cuban foreign policy is thus seen as having a strong pragmatic context.

Advancing the analysis, Erisman develops the concept of counterdependency politics. It is argued that Cuba is a small state that was in very dependent relations with first Spain and then the United States, and that it had continually to negotiate its relationship with the Soviet Union to minimize any subordination. As such, Cuba is seen as extremely sensitive to dependency of any kind.

The Cuban nation's foreign policy is conceptualized as one in which the government assigns top priority to cultivating the capacity to prevent exogenous penetration of its decisionmaking processes and thereby reduce its vulnerability to external power centers to the point where its sociopolitical and developmental dynamics are not basically the product of a subordinated relationship with a strong industrialized country, but rather are a reflection of a series of formally or informally negotiated relationships.

Deftly employing this formulation, the work uses basic concepts like national interest to explore what are seen as four major eras of Cuban foreign policy: 1954-72, "In the Shadows of the Superpowers"; 1972-85, "Beyond the Superpowers: The Halcyon Days of Cuban Globalism"; 1985-92, "Engulfed by the Maelstrom: Cuba and the Passing of the Cold War"; and 1992 on, "Cuba Confronts the Post-Cold War Order." In chapterlong discussions of each era, the dynamics of Havana's actions on the world stage are examined. Erisman employs different approaches, but primarily relies on realism and its emphasis on national interests and the counterdependency concept discussed earlier in the work.

An excellent introductory chapter gives the historical and national context in which to view the development of Cuban foreign policy, and even includes biographical information on Fidel Castro and Cuban independence leader Jose Marti. The work also contains some 26 different tables that provide excellent empirical information on Cuban trade with other areas and some internal economic indicators. Although the analysis ends with 1999, the conclusions-that Cuba is aligning its international trade relationships on pragmatic terms and has successfully developed its tourist industry-hold true today and help to buttress the island's ongoing ability to maintain an independent-but much less strident-foreign policy. Furthermore, the modest but solid economic growth that Cuba has experienced in the last few years, and the growing interest of U.S. agriculture and business sectors in ending the embargo and renewing U.S.-Cuban trade relations, allow Cuba some flexibility in negotiating the inevitable renewed trade and diplomatic relations with the United States.