On the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, expert Daniel Erikson explores the twilight of the Castro era and what the future has in store for America’s last Cold War enemy.

January 1, 2009 will mark a half century for a Cuban regime created and shaped by the powerful will of Fidel Castro—but the ailing leader may be gone from the scene before the anniversary arrives. The Cuba Wars explores the two crucial questions of the coming era: When Castro dies, what will happen in Cuba? And what will happen in America?

There are few international relationships that rival in intimacy, passion, and sheer tension that between the Cuba and the United States. In The Cuba Wars, Cuba expert Daniel Erikson draws on extensive visits to Cuba and conversations with both government officials and opposition leaders—plus the key players in Washington and Florida—to offer an unmatched portrait of a small country with very large importance to America.

Cuba remains "our last Cold War enemy"—now closely allied to Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela as it once was to the USSR. Yet it has quietly become a major trade partner for American agribusiness. The "next revolution" there could see Cuba become a multibillion-dollar capitalist economy—or continue as a socialist dystopia, or lapse into civil war. The Cuba Wars is the book to read to understand the present and future of Cuba.

Daniel P. Erikson is senior associate for U.S. policy at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington, D.C. He has published more than fifty scholarly articles and essays and in publications including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Miami Herald. He is co-editor of Transforming Socialist Economies: Lessons for Cuba and Beyond, and recipient of a Fulbright scholarship.

Reviews

"With this fresh, astute, and compassionate exploration of the past two decades of U.S.-Cuban relations, Erikson emerges as a valuable new voice in Washington foreign policy circles. An analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue, Erikson conducted research that took him to Cuba (including Guantánamo Bay) 14 times, and he also gained access to leading players in Caracas, Miami, and Washington. This fair-minded author allows the contending actors to speak for themselves, expertly guiding readers through the increasingly splintered yet still powerful Cuban-American exile community, the world of the courageous opposition figures remaining on the island, and, most sharply, the tumultuous U.S. Congress. Erikson blasts both the Bush administration, for its counterproductive pugnacious hostility, which handed Fidel Castro a ready excuse to brutally squash dissent, and the congressional Democrats, for being cowardly, confused, distracted, and divided. Although the transition to a more open Cuba is likely to be gradual, Erikson suggests, the United States could accelerate the "revolution of expectations" among Cuban youth with a policy of engagement: of more open travel, cultural contacts, and economic exchange. The Cuba Wars is an eloquent cry for more realistic, decent responses that help -- rather than further punish -- the long-suffering Cuban people.—Foreign Affairs