Cuban Foreign Policy Confronts a New International Order - Tapa dura

After 30 years of what has been an often tumultuous revolutionary experience, Cuba appears to be at a crossroads in its international relations. As its traditional alliances with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries have become increasingly tenuous, other dimensions of its international agenda, especially in the Third World and Western Europe, have gained new importance. There is also the question of US-Cuban relations in the post-Cold War world: will the general lessening of East-West tensions translate into major initiatives to normalize relations, or will the traditional pattern of confrontation perhaps intensify? This book addresses such immediate issues within the broader context of Cuban foreign policy overall. The authors explore the challenges Cuba faces in the international arena as the Revolution enters its fourth decade - challenges related not only to the process of restructuring that is occuring in the Soviet bloc, but also to the economic problems that the island is facing and to the phenomenon of generational change as younger individuals rise through Cuba's leadership ranks.