Book review

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.9.2.0271
• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017
• Pages: 271252-272
• Author: Alessandro Badella

BOOK REVIEWS 271

IJCS Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/

Arnold August, Cuba-U.S. Relations: Obama and beyond (Black Point,

Winnipeg: Fernwoood, 2017), pb. 252pp. ISBN: 978-1-55266-965-5

Reviewed by Alessandro Badella

In his latest book, Arnold August, a leading expert of the Cuban political inter-

nal dynamics, presents a revealing and detailed analysis of Cuba–US relations.

Since 17 December 2015, the peculiar and asymmetrical relations between the

two countries have been evolving in a way that was unpredictable only a decade

ago. The 18-month bilateral negotiation led to a growing cooperation between

Cuba and the US, even though many elements of friction survived and are play-

ing an important role in characterising this brand new modus vivendi.

Despite Western mainstream media presenting the so-called ‘17D’ (the 17

December 2014 agreement) along with Obama’s visit to the island, as the ‘end

of the Cold War’ between the two countries, many thorny issues survived, espe-

cially in the realm of no-win-win situations. In particular, August reflects on the

latter aspects, or the ‘dark side’, of US appeasement and concessions to Havana,

for example, the question of the Guantánamo prison and the ongoing core of

economic sanctions against the island that are still representing some divisions.

As August shows in this book, in both the cases Obama refused to exercise some

of his presidential prerogatives (and executive powers) to further ease restric-

tions of the Cuban bloqueo and to close the US naval base on the island.

Moreover, August’s analysis examines in depth the unchanged attitude in US

foreign policy-making regarding Cuba. In fact, Cuba-U.S. Relations: Obama

and beyond mainly deals with the ideological divide which has survived despite

the Obama–Castro agreement. In August’s view, the US has simply changed the

tone and the tools (or ‘Trojan Horses’) used in the past as leverage with Cuba.

However, the main goal of US foreign policy remains its ‘imperial’ ambition to

decide and influence externally Cuba’s future. So, for example, the 17D agree-

ment opened new spaces for people-to-people communication and cultural

exchanges which is categorised as a ‘hipster colonialism’ (pp. 145–8).

Furthermore, people-to-people contacts and diplomacy (which, in US eyes,

represent a way to spread US values on the island, such as capitalism), have been

going along with US-sponsored programmes of external democracy promotion,

which survived under Obama. According to August, ‘Obama decided to change

the tactics, which had not worked to subvert the Cuban Revolution and sover-

eignty, to others that he hopes will work to attain this […]. Obama has in fact

made democracy promotion and subversive programs irreversible’ (p. 205). In

fact, US agencies are still generously funding programmes the Cuban govern-

ment considers as a mere injurious to its internal affairs (pp. 155–62). Moreover,