The Caribbean area projects an image—not entirely accurate—of instability, and it is within that context that the United States and Cuba, the region's chief protagonists, struggle. This book explores in detail the history and nature of Cuba's influence in the Commonwealth Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America, as well as its relations wi

A sophisticated comparative study of the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Grenadian revolutions, using techniques derived from J. S. Mill and perfected by Theda S. Skopol. Despite the unfulfilled promise of all three revolutions, they do suggest that people have the potential to make history and affect positive changes. Originally published by Macmillan Caribbean 1993, this classic contains a new preface by Anthony Maingot, Florida International University.

From its inception, Fidel Castro's revolution has exerted an impact on the international scene far out of proportion to Cuba's modest size and limited resources. This phenomenon became more pronounced in the mid-1970s as Havana's foreign policies took on truly global parameters that involved the dispatch of large combat forces to Angola and Ethiopia, the initiation of ambitious military and developmental aid programs for Third World nations, and the assumption of leadership of the Nonaligned Movement. Today Cuba remains a significant actor on the world scene, giving top priority to Caribbean and Central American affairs. Critics, especially in the United States, have insisted that Cuban globalism is not a nationalist expression, that Cuba is but a surrogate for the Soviet Union. Such charges, however, ignore or seriously underestimate the role that nationalism has always played in the Cuban Revolution. This book explores the nature and development of Castro's foreign relations in general and Cuban globalism in particular, with primary attention devoted to nationalism's influence on Havana's policies toward the United States, the Soviet Union, and especially the developing (mostly nonaligned) African, Asian, and Latin countries of the Third World. To give the reader an in-depth Cuban perspective on crucial international issues, excerpts from Castro's major speeches and press interviews are included. Erisman concludes that the nationalistic dimension of Havana's foreign policies has definitely not been fully appreciated, and this omission obscures the complexity and true essence of Cuban globalism.

This book examines change within continuity and analyzes stability within revolution. It focuses on uneven rate of development among the political, economic, and social realms of revolutionary life in socialist Cuba; on the implications of the changes unleashed by the Third Party Congress in 1986.

This comprehensive work on security in the English-speaking Caribbean, offers a wealth of information about the history, politics, economics and geography of the entire region. The author examines security problems in the region as a geopolitical unit, not on a selective case-study basis, as is usually done. He assesses Caribbean security within a theoretical framework where four factors are critical: perceptions of the political elites; capabilities of the states; the geopolitics of the area; and the ideological orientations of the parties in power. Political and economic issues are judged to be as relevant to security as military factors. The author identifies safeguards which countries in the region may take in the coming decade.

Forty-six essays, presented by avowedly anti-Castro editors and gathered mostly from US journals and books of the past couple decades, are organized into five sections devoted to the history, economy, society, military, and polity of Cuba. Some of the specific topics treated include: Cuban and Soviet relations; decentralization, local government, and participation; economic policies and strategies for the 1990s; the politics of sports; political and military relations; and forecasting institutional changes after Castro. In addition, two appendices present a chronology of the Cuban revolution from 1959 to 1998 and biographical essays on 19 revolutionary leaders. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Originally published in 1990. The Caribbean basin is an extremely diverse area in geographical, ethnic and cultural terms. Its educational systems, too, are remarkably varied, reflecting colonial and religious traditions as well as those of a broad range of post-independence movements. Even these show a pronounced merging of the home-grown and the foreign, with the influence of the superpowers never far away. This book comprises a number of case studies ranging across the Caribbean region. The contributors focus in particular on Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, Mexico City, Central America, Costa Rica and Venezuela. By assembling studies from diverse cultural and political traditions and networks, the book gives a more comprehensive Caribbean perspective on education than has hitherto been available.

Red Calypso tells the story of Grenada's fall to Marxist tyranny and the United States' rescue of the island from a violent and fanatical government. When Maurice Bishop took over the government of Grenada establishing a one-party state on Leninist principles, he did not know that he would one day fall victim to his own machinery. The terror, corruption, and absurdity of Bishop's regime have never been described so vividly as in this eye-witness account which analyses the brief experiment in Grenadian communism and the American invasion which ended it.

Combined with aggressive rhetoric and ideological hostility, the conventional approach to crisis resolution generates only military options and diminishes our prospects for less dangerous solutions. This book explains how a workable, pragmatic, and efficient foreign policy in relation to Soviet-Cuban activities in the Third World can evolve through negotiation, that de-emphasizes ideology. The focus is on problems within less developed countries--problems that provide opportunities for Soviet-Cuban involvement. The book examines several Third World conflicts in which the Soviet Union and Cuba are involved (The Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Southern Africa, and the Commonwealth Caribbean) and suggests a pragmatic policy tailored to each regional conflict. An objective assessment of Soviet-Cuban activities discovers opportunities for cooperation and mutual restraint.