National Security, the State, and the Politics of U.S.-Cuba Educational Exchange

Abstract

In the context of the global war on terror, the political logic of U.S. Cuba policy seems oddly constant. Despite the renovation of the national security state and U.S. global strategy, and the expanded constellation of domestic interests at play in the Clinton-era policy of people-to-people exchange, long-lived hostility toward Castro and intractable reliance on economic sanctions and threats seem to characterize the post-9/11 Cuba policy of the Bush administration. Yet striking changes have in fact occurred, among them the radical restriction of travel and remittances to Cuba by Cuban-Americans and the limiting of academic exchange between Cuba and the United States. An exploration of Bush’s Cuba policy and its implementation in the homeland security state reveals the tensions between antiterrorism and anti-Castroism.