Cuba

Steve Clemons, a director at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank that favours ending the ban, today predicted that passage through Congress was more likely next year than this. Mel Martinez, a Republican senator from Florida, ...

For years, two tidbits of conventional wisdom have dominated debates among Cubanologists (a tropical subspecies of former Kremlinologists). First, that Deputy Prime Minister and economic czar Carlos Lage has been in charge of running the island economy since the early '90s, and, despite differences of opinion regarding his performance, was seen as one of the most likely successors to Fidel Castro's brother and successor, Raúl.

In the words of Steve Clemons, a Latin America expert at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank, Cuba is “the lowest hanging ripe fruit on America’s tree of foreign policy options. Change is easy there -- and overdue. ...

But Steve Clemons, with the New America Foundation, says Lugar's report is a sharp indictment of nearly five decades of failure in trying to shift Havana's behavior through sanctions and embargoes. "I think the ... thing about the Lugar report is he ...

The Cuban revolution turned 50 years old last week, and its founder and undertaker was still around to celebrate the anniversary, though not in the best of health or spirits. This makes it a good opportunity to summarize what the revolution has brought to Cuba and what is has meant for Latin America.

On the eve of its 50th anniversary, the Cuban Revolution -- or what is left of it -- can contemplate a bewildering paradox that sums up the results of one of Latin America's most daring political feats of all time. Never before has Havana harvested diplomatic successes of the sort it has enjoyed in the last few months. Yet never before has the survival of the regime -- and the Cuban people's acceptance of the domestic sacrifices it demands of them -- been so much in doubt.

If you live in Galveston, Texas, Hurricane Ike will be remembered for its destruction. But history may remember the ninth named storm of the 2008 season for swinging the 2008 presidential campaign.

"Cuba has a chance to be a real role model for Latin America, as the region tries to figure out how to survive the coming global economic transition from high waste to high efficiency," writes Patrick Doherty of the New America Foundation. But he cautions that "economic change has to come faster than Raul is presently orchestrating." LINK

Monday’s event brought together Dimitri Simes of the Nixon Center, Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson -- former chief of staff to General Colonel Powell -- and New America’s Flynt Leverett and Steve Clemons to discuss the future of Cuba policy. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right.