Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) have learned to adapt to the changing environment. Since the Soviet Union’s disintegration, the FAR have had to refocus their core mission and reassert their value in the Cuban polity. As a result of the loss of economic aid from the Soviet Union, the FAR have become a constabulary force, […]

The exact place and role of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, FAR) have been the object of numerous studies from very different perspectives, especially among U.S. and Cuban- American scholars.1 In the past, Cuba’s military potentials in its conflict with the United States, its alliance with the former Soviet Union, and Cuba’s military […]

It is a pleasure to be here this morning, to have the opportunity to speak before such a distinguished and informed audience on the subject of banking sector reforms in Cuba. I will begin my presentation with a brief survey of the Cuban financial sector before the reforms were introduced; I will then proceed to […]

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991 became the precursors for the collapse of the Cuban economy, central to which were the Soviet oil-forsugar swaps over the preceding three decades. At its zenith, this barter arrangement provided the financial basis for Cuba to […]

There is no widely accepted technical or popular definition of the term “reconciliation” as applied to states and nations.1 Despite a recent boom in reconciliation processes at the national, state and international levels, discussions and debates on cases of reconciliation frequently generate more heat than light. Discussants “talk past” each other because they hold distinct […]