New Sce­nar­ios for US-Cuba Rela­tions: His­tor­i­cal Perspectives

November 7, 2003 - 4:30 PM

Speak­ers:

  • Philip Bren­ner
    School of Inter­na­tional Stud­ies, Amer­i­can University
  • Philip Peters
    Vice Pres­i­dent, Lex­ing­ton Institute

This series will review the past his­tory of US-Cuban rela­tions, par­tic­u­larly nego­ti­a­tions between the two coun­tries, in order to iden­tify areas of con­sen­sus con­cern­ing mutual con­cerns. This will serve to sug­gest new sce­nar­ios for mutu­ally ben­e­fi­cial rela­tions. Par­tic­i­pants will include rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the US and Cuban gov­ern­ments, inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, the non-governmental sec­tor, schol­ars and other inter­ested par­ties. Empha­sis will be on gen­er­at­ing some prac­ti­cal options for improv­ing US-Cuban relations.

Philip Bren­ner is a pro­fes­sor of pol­i­tics in the school of inter­na­tional stud­ies at Amer­i­can Uni­ver­sity spe­cial­iz­ing in US for­eign pol­icy with an empha­sis on Latin Amer­ica. He has been a staff mem­ber of the US con­gress and has writ­ten exten­sively about the role of con­gress in the mak­ing of USfor­eign pol­icy. He has also pub­lished exten­sively on US-Cuba rela­tions includ­ing two books: From Con­fronta­tion to Nego­ti­a­tion: US Rela­tions with Cuba and Sad and Lumi­nous Days: Cuba’s Secret Strug­gle with the Super­power After the Mis­sile Cri­sis with James Blight. The lat­ter book, pub­lished in 2002, is based on US and Cuban gov­ern­ment doc­u­ments. He is a grad­u­ate of Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity and received his doc­tor­ate from Johns Hop­kins University.

Philip Peters is vice pres­i­dent of the Lex­ing­ton Insti­tute where he is respon­si­ble for inter­na­tional eco­nomic pro­grams with a focus on Latin Amer­ica. Mr. Peters has also done exten­sive research in Cuba on small busi­nesses, for­eign invest­ment, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy, and enter­prise reform, as well as US pol­icy towards Cuba. In the 1980s, he served in the Rea­gan and Bush admin­is­tra­tions and is cur­rently an advi­sor to the Cuba work­ing group of the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. He also served as a mem­ber of the Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions task force on US-Cuba rela­tions. He has pub­lished in the Wall Street Jour­nal, the Chicago Tri­bune, the Miami Her­ald, and Barron’s among oth­ers. He is a grad­u­ate of George­town Uni­ver­sity School of For­eign Ser­vice and Georgetown’s grad­u­ate school.