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American hýbris: US Democracy Promotion in Cuba after the Cold War — Part 2
Abstract
This second part of the article deals with the importance of democracy promotion towards Cuba as an internal political issue in the US, the so-called ‘two-level game’. In the last decade, democracy promotion has been receiving criticisms from the academic community and policymakers. The backlash on democracy promotion, the unintended consequences of democratic assistance in developing countries and the difficulty of predicting outcomes of democracy promotion in ‘transitional countries’ posed several questions to US foreign democratic assistance. While at a theoretical level, these problems have helped to redefine US democratic efforts abroad, the Cuban case has been highly dominated by democracy promotion as the cornerstone of US Cuba policy. Apart from Obama's new course with Cuba, which has not dramatically changed US goals on the island, US vision and strategy for the Cuban democratic transition have survived: despite everything, the US has continued to promote democracy in Cuba, with little or no change. In fact, despite Obama not abandoning democratisation, it seems he is pursuing a more ‘teleological approach’ to the matter.
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The word hýbris is of Greek origin. Among ancient Greeks, it defined a sort of sin against the Gods, and it was related to a human behaviour when common people pretended to be ‘like a God’ or even considered themselves more important than divinity. Today, its meaning recalls arrogance, or extreme and unjustified selfconfidence.
According to the Logan Act, US officials would need a special authorisation for the Department of State to have official relations with a government not recognised by the US. In that case, the delegation never requested such a formal permission.
René González and Fernando González, two of the ‘Cuban five’, were released in October 2013 and February 2014, respectively. The other three are still held in the US.
This last issue is particularly relevant in US-Cuba relations, and it became evident even before the ‘Bush doctrine’. Global and regional players (which are US allies), such as Canada and the European Union (EU), were sufficiently compromised with the democratic transition in Cuba, while criticizing the US approach and embargo towards the island (Gratius 2005; McKenna 2004). In other words, dealing with Cuba, those players have become pro-democracy and anti-American external forces.
Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2013, The Center for Systemic Peace (CSP), http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm.
Some scholars (Kaplowitz 1998: 201; Hufbauer et al. 2008: 162) argued that economic sanctions are less effective when the goal of sanctions is a ‘major foreign policy goal’, such as the democratic transition of the target country. In other words, a too far-reaching and ambitious scope would undermine sanctions' efficacy.
US-Cuba Democracy political action committee (PAC), http://www.uscubapac.com/purposeandagenda.html.
How do you wish for us to rule ourselves by laws that they pass for themselves? Imitate. ‘No! Copy. No! It is good, they tell us. It is American we say.’