Editorial: This Issue

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.10.2.0154
• Pages: 154-156
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Date: 01 December 2018

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 10.2 WInter 2018

EDITORIAL

THIS ISSUE

In preparing for the Latin American Studies Association Congress in Boston,

scheduled for May 2019, one cannot help being struck by the irony of it being

called: ‘Nuestra America: Justice and Inclusion,’ in commemoration of José Martí’s

essay of that name. It is ironic because, of course, thanks to the exclusionary nature of

the Trump administration, Cubans from the island will not be able to attend.

Contemplating why that is the case and other aspects of the Trump policy towards

Cuba, Margaret Crahan of Columbia University analyses in this issue the president’s

character traits and his choice of advisors, some of whom, she argues, ‘mirror’ his

attitudes and core belief that to restore US supremacy worldwide, American

diplomacy needs to be forceful and aggressive. Trump, she explains, is not an

advocate of soft or smart power as used by the Obama administration and tends

to prefer advisors whom he regards as tough and assertive. The result, she con-

cludes, will be less diplomacy and possibly more precipitous action.

That the US should be gripped by such a reactionary government is also an

ironic juxtaposition to developments that are happening in the island, which, as

we write, is in the process of democratisation, experiencing once again what one

observer quipped is ‘the mother of all focus groups’. Over the autumn and win-

ter of 2018, Cubans were being consulted on proposed changes to the constitu-

tion. In meetings all over the country, citizens were being asked for their views

and opinions as to how the country should be governed going forward. This

mass consultation follows the ‘workers’ parliaments’ of 1992–93 on the first

economic readjustment following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the mass

consultation in 2009–11 that preceded the adoption of the ‘guidelines’ of eco-

nomic reform. This time the population is being asked to deliberate over the

political settlement intended to take the revolution on to its ‘post-revolutionary

generation’ phase.

In this context, we publish two articles from prominent Cuban intellectuals.

The first, by Rafael Betancourt, takes issue with the belief that, as a consequence

of the economic reforms, many believe that Cuban society is in reality evolving

towards the deconstruction of its social and solidarity economy and that the