There and back again: United States policy toward Cuba in the 21st century

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.14.2.0309
• Published date: 20 January 2023
• Date: 20 January 2023
• Pages: 309-342
• Author: Ernesto Domínguez López,Raúl Rodríguez Rodríguez
• Subject Matter: United States,Cuba,policy making,bilateral relations,foreign policy

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

ACADEMIC ARTICLE

THERE AND BACK AGAIN: UNITED STATES

POLICY TOWARD CUBA IN THE 21ST

CENTURY

Ernesto Domínguez López1

Center for Hemispheric and United States Studies, University of Havana

Raúl Rodríguez Rodríguez2

Center for Hemispheric and United States Studies, University of Havana

Abstract

The article proposes an approach to the US Cuba policy in the 21st century as public

policy. We examine the core variables that drive this Cuba policy and their behaviour

during the 21st century. We then identify the central axes of the policy and study

their expressions. This allows us to explain the evolution of that policy across three

administrations, the first year of a fourth and ten and a half legislative periods. The

conclusions of the study provide a better understanding of the making and the nature

of that policy. Consequently, it will help to explain the framework that the US Cuba

policy creates to thwart the development of Cuba.

1 Ernesto Domínguez López is a full Professor of Contemporary History and Political

Sciences at the Center for Hemispheric and United States Studies at University of

Havana. Mr Dominguez is a Visiting Professor at the University of Buckingham (UK)

and the University of Sancti Spiritus (Cuba). His research interests include the study

of Cuba-US relations, US political system and processes, post-industrial (knowledge)

capitalism, international relations, political theory and theory of history.

2 Raúl Rodríguez Rodríguez is a full professor of North American History and

International Relations and currently the Director of the Center for Hemispheric and

United States Studies at the University of Havana. Mr Rodríguez heads the National

Social Sciences and Humanities Program. His research interests include the history

of North America, US and Canadian foreign policy, and triangular relations between

Canada, United States and Cuba.

DOI:10.13169/intejcubastud.14.2.0309

310 ACADEMIC ARTICLE – DOMÍNGUEZ LÓPEZ AND RODRÍGUEZ RODRÍGUEZ

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 14.2 WInter 2022

Resumen

El artículo aborda la política de Estados Unidos hacia Cuba en el siglo XXI, entendiéndola

como una política pública. Se examinan las variables clave de la política hacia Cuba y

su comportamiento durante el presente siglo. Se identifican los ejes centrales de esa

política y se estudian sus expresiones. Esto permite explicar la evolución de la política

hacia la isla a lo largo de tres administraciones estadounidenses, el primero de una

cuarta y 10 y medio períodos legislativos. Las conclusiones del estudio proporcionan

una mejor comprensión del proceso de conformación y la naturaleza de esa política.

Consecuentemente, el artículo ayuda a explicar las condiciones que esta crea para

obstaculizar el desarrollo de Cuba.

Key words: United States, Cuba, policy making, bilateral relations, foreign policy

Introduction

The history of Cuba is deeply intertwined with the history of empires and power

struggles, a centrepiece in the existence of the modern world. As a result of mas-

sive flows of population, commerce and cultural influences, Cuba’s identity is in

essence a synthesis of a wide array of components of different origins, that inter-

acted to create emerging properties, to build multi-layered imaginaries and to set

a specific tempo for its evolution.

Since the second half of the 19th century, that history has been the story of

Cuban nationhood; more precisely, the process of defining a nation, building its

core institutions, obtaining its independence and protecting its sovereignty. All

political movements and all major political events have included the centrality of

Cuba´s sovereignty, either as the goal of the actors involved, or as currency in a

bargain for a domestic power position subordinated to a foreign dominant polity.

For over a century, the main external actor in Cuba’s history has been the

United States. As the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere, the North

American country became a looming presence in the island´s economy decades

prior to the beginning of the Cuban independence wars. After 1880 the United

States became Cuba´s economic metropolis (Perez Jr. 1983; Le Riverend 1974:

508). It gained influence in the island´s political affairs and, eventually, as a

result of the Cuban-Spanish-American War of 1898, it took control of the coun-

try. This was the first and most basic stone in the foundation of its regional

power structure, and in turn was a central pillar of its subsequent standing as a

global player.

The Revolution of 1959 – like all previous revolutionary movements – aimed

at building Cuba´s sovereignty, along with a deep transformation of its social,

THERE AND BACK AGAIN 311

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

economic and political structures. The accumulated evidence is clear in this

sense: the socio-political structure and the independence–dependence dichotomy

were fully integrated at the very core of Cuban history, hence the impossibility

of having sovereignty without social transformation. Conversely, all subsequent

attempts by Washington to reclaim its influence over the country have inevitably

had the goal of creating a political and social regime in Cuba that fits the descrip-

tion of junior partner in an asymmetric relation (Dominguez Lopez & Yaffe

2017). This continues to be the case for all the ongoing current attempts.

It seems evident, therefore, that Washington´s Cuba policy must be a major

dimension in any analytical model that we may apply to the island´s history,

inasmuch as it is a factor that affects its politics, economy, culture and society.

Hence the interest of studying the variables that drive that policy, and the forms

that the policy takes.

The aim of the discussion that follows is to contribute to the understanding

of that policy. This is not only essential for understanding Cuban history, but

also it is an important issue in United States´ politics and political history that

should not be underestimated. In this text we aim to explain the policy toward

Cuba made in Washington in the early 21st century, that is, between the inaugu-

ration of George W. Bush as president and the first year of the Joe Biden

administration. We focus attention on the long-lasting trends and the variables

that shape the US Cuba policy, and then we explore the main expressions that

those policies take.

In our view, foreign policy is a set of policies made by state and non-state

actors in relation to other foreign state and non-state actors. Here we are

addressing a subset of the foreign policy of the United States. We consider that a

state´s foreign policy is, by definition, a type of public policy, in line with the

view of González Gómez (1990). A public policy can be defined as any action or

inaction decided by a government in any specific policy area (Dye 2017: 3). In

our study, we use the theoretical framework proposed by Dominguez Lopez and

Barrera Rodriguez (2020), derived from cyclical models of policy making syn-

thesised by Dye (2017) and Birkland (2015).

There are three key additions to the cyclical model. First, the role played by

other governmental actors, as any organ making policy is part of the system of

government, which in turn is part of the political system, which in turn is part of

the cultural complexus that is the society at large, a multifaceted, dynamic,

adaptive system (Dominguez Lopez 2020: see Figure 1). The second derives from

this systemic nature: the role of non-governmental actors, organised or not,

largely controlled by the elites, given their demonstrated influence on the politi-

cal process (Gilens & Page 2014). The elites are not monolithic, as the views and

interests of different power groups and individuals shape political competition,