Obama and Cuba: Constraints and Opportunities

March 20, 2009 - 4:00 PM

Robert A. Pastor

Professor of International Relations

Co-Director, Center on North American Studies

Co-Director, Center on Democracy and Election Management

American University

Host:

Mauricio Font

Director of the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies and
Professor of Sociology, The Graduate Center, CUNY

WHEN: Friday, March 20, 2009, 4:00PM

WHERE: The Graduate Center, Room 9206/9207

365 Fifth Avenue (@ 34th Street)

About the Speaker:

Robert Pastor is Professor at American University (AU) and the Founder and Co-Director of two Centers – on North American Studies and on Democracy and Election Management. As National Security Advisor for Latin American Affairs during the Carter Administration, he conducted the first secret negotiations with Fidel Castro since relations were broken in 1961. From 1985 to September 2002, Dr. Pastor was Professor at Emory University and Fellow and Founding Director of the Carter Center’s Latin American and Caribbean Program and the Democracy Project where he organized Election-Monitoring Missions to more than 40 countries around the world.  He was a Fulbright Professor in Mexico, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia, and was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be Ambassador to Panama. Dr. Pastor has a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University where he has taught and is the author or editor of 16 books, including Exiting the Whirlpool: US Foreign Policy Toward Latin America. He has just returned from a week trip to Cuba.