The restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba in December 2014 was as significant as it was stage-managed. But behind the handshakes, what is really going on inside US-Cuban relations?
The Latin America and Caribbean Centre in collaboration with the United States Centre at LSE have been awarded IGA-Rockefeller Resilience Research seed funding for a project to analyse the sources of the US-Cuba rapprochement, and how the process will impact Cuba’s indigenous economic reform programme. The aim is to understand the new US-Cuba diplomacy in regional and global context. Drawing on interviews with Cuban and American policymakers, it investigates the sources and prospects of the United States’ strategic shift, and the implications of Cuba’s economic reform programme for wider processes of bilateral rapprochement and regional engagement.
Helen Yaffe speaks to BBC World News
Helen Yaffe speaks to BBC World News about US-Cuba relations
Project lead Helen Yaffe said “The US-Cuba rapprochement has the potential to transform Cuba’s political and economic environment, but it also creates new pressures on Cuba’s political and economic structures. The LSE is the perfect place to provide detached, authoritative study of the US-Cuba rapprochement, in what is a really exciting collaboration between two leading research centres.” Initial field research in Cuba took place between December 2016 and January 2017.
PI: Dr Helen Yaffe (LACC); Dr Nick Kitchen (US Centre)