Perfect Failure: the USA,Cuba and the Bay of Pigs, 1961

In 1961 the US Central Intelligence Agency master‐minded a sea‐borne invasion by Cuban exiles aimed at overthrowing the regime headed by Fidel Castro. With minimal logistical support from the USA the attempted counter‐coup launched at the Bay of Pigs was an unqualified disaster: a ‘perfect failure’, in the words of an authoritative contemporary. This essay locates the fiasco in the longer history of US–Cuban relations, concentrating on the Cold War years, the history of US political intervention and subversion in Latin America, and the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and the rise of Castro himself—both men offering different models of Latin American caudillismo (the power and cult of military strongmen). The essay concludes with an analysis of Cuba as an issue in US domestic politics and the impact of the Bay of Pigs in consolidating the Cuban revolution and setting the framework for the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.     

Return to Havana

He is author of The Taming of Fidel Castroand other works on Cuba and the Caribbean.     

Campaign Contributions and U.S. Foreign Policy Outcomes: An Analysis of Cuban American Interests

To what extent are ethnic minority interest groups able to influence U.S. foreign policy? Current case study research has identified several factors that may condition the ability of diasporic groups to influence foreign policy toward ancestral “homelands.” To this point, existing studies have been unable to isolate the impact of campaign contributions from other factors that may influence U.S. foreign policy decision making. The current study uses a combination of conditional and standard logistic regression to examine the impact of Cuban American interest group and individual campaign contributions on a series of votes on key amendments in the 108^th and 109^th Congresses. Results from the study support the idea that the Cuban diasporic community in the United States has had an impact on U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba. However, there are significant limits to this influence conditioned in part by issue salience.     

Jack,Judy, Sam,Bobby, Johnny,Frank...: An investigation into the alternate history of the CIA‐Mafia collaboration to assassinate Fidel Castro, 1960–1997

The CIA‐Mafia plots to assassinate Fidel Castro in the early 1960s serve, by themselves, as comically horrifying tales, some of the many littered throughout American Cold War history. Yet these events have lived an extraordinary life outside of the textbooks and classrooms; the danger and intrigue of the organized crime underworld mixed with a national fascination with the Kennedy family have kept this story alive through all of its mutations. J. Alan Wolske analyzes the various histories of the assassination plots that have sprung from the government's own attempts to face up to its past deeds, and attempts to reconcile them with the ‘official’ history.     

Corporate Power and Political Science

Miles Wolpin. Alternative Security and Military Dissent. Bethesda, MD: Austin &; Winfield. 1994. 286 pp. $19.95.

Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler. Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: The Dynamics of People Power in the Twentieth Century. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994. 366 pp.

Glenn D. Paige. To Nonviolent Political Science: From Seasons of Violence. Honolulu: Center for Global Nonviolence Planning Project, Matsunaga Institute for Peace, University of Hawaii, 1993.179 pp.

Frank T. Fitzgerald. The Cuban Revolution in Crisis: From Managing Socialism to Managing Survival. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1994. 239 pp.

Mandy Macdonald and Mike Gatehouse. In the Mountains of Morazán: Portrait of a Returned Refugee Community in El Salvador. London: Latin America Bureau. 1995. 216 pp.

Catherine Samary. Yugoslavia Dismembered. Translated by Peter Drucker. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1995.185 pp. (Published asLe Déchirure yougoslave, 1994, L'Harmattan.)     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Labour: Professionalism and Internal Democracy
JAMES E. CRONIN Building New Labour: The Politics of Party Organisation, by Meg Russell Cuba: Miserable Happiness? Cuba: A New History, by Richard Gott
Maurice Walsh Yeh but no but
Robert Colls The Politics of Identity. Liberal Political Theory and the Dilemmas of Difference, by Michael Kenny Does economic growth help the poor?
Norman Flynn The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime, by Jeffrey Sachs, with a Foreword by Bono Jews for dialogue
Ann Jungmann A Tale of Love and Happiness, by Amos Oz. Vintage A modest proposal
James Cornford Magnificent Vision: The Right to Work, by Alan Whitford Churchill's righting history
John Rams den In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War, by David Reynolds     

The Cuban family: principal sociodemographic features that have characterized its development and dynamics

"This study deals with the principal sociodemographic features which have characterized the development and dynamics of the Cuban family during the last decade. It also describes the way in which sociocultural changes taking place in Cuba have influenced the family. The article includes an analysis of average age at first marriage or union, types of marriage, changes in fertility rates (and how women contribute to these changes depending on their age), and the dissolution of the family unit." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Reflections of a social ecologist

He has written widely on political and economic issues. Among his many books are The End of Economic Man; The Future of Industrial Man; The Age of Discontinuity; The New Society; Concept of the Corporation; Landmarks of Tomorrow; The Pension Fund Revolution (previously, The Unseen Revolution);all of these titles are being reissued in a special series by Transaction Publishers. In the past, Mr. Drucker has been a journalist, an economist in international investment banking, a consultant for several American corporations and companies abroad as well as for U. S. government agencies and foreign governments, especially Canada and Japan.     

Book Reviews

Books in this article:
Solon Ardittis (ed., foreword by Jacques Attali), The Politics of East — West Migration
Daniel Gordon, Citizens without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought
John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary. Explaining Northern Ireland
W. Lance Bennett and David L. Paletz (eds), Taken by Storm: the Media, Public Opinion, and US Foreign Policy in the Gulf War (Chicago IL, University of Chicago Press, 1994)
Michael C. Dawson, Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics
David Johnston, The Idea of a Liberal Theory: a Critique and Reconstruction
Christopher Lasch, The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy
David Miliband (ed.), Reinventing the Left
Jack D. Fleer, North Carolina Government and Politics
Leslie Bethell (ed.), Argentina since Independence
Niccolò Machiavelli (ed. and transl. by David Wootton), Selected Political Writings
Richard Crockatt, The Fifty Years War: the United States and the Soviet Union in World Politics
Julie Marie Bunck, Fidel Castro and the Quest for a Revolutionary Culture in Cuba
Mark Lilla (ed.) New French Thought: Political Philosophy     

Mirroring Risk: The Cuban Missile Estimation

The Cuban Missile Crisis is by this point well known to all scholars of international politics. Yet, although it has yielded countless lessons over the years, one critical aspect of the case has remained unexamined: the failure of estimation prior to the crisis that led US officials to discount the possibility of a missile deployment in Cuba. This article re-examines US intelligence estimates of the Soviet Union prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis in light of the concept of ‘mirroring risk’, introduced in this article. I present a framework for understanding a class of intelligence failures that are caused by the mis-assessment of how an adversary frames a decision and the risks that they are willing to take. I also present a new two-stage process for understanding how individuals assess the risk-propensity of adversaries in international politics.     

The world as a moral community

He is the author and co-author of numerous books, among them The Sociology of the Future; The Democratic Revolution in the West Indies; Decisions of Nationhood; Jamaican Leaders; Ethnicity, and Nation Building; Public Leadership;and Social Area Analysis.He is currently working on a book titled Foundations of the Futures Field.     

Popular mobilization and disaster management in Cuba

Cuba has effectively implemented a system of popular mobilization and education to prepare people for such natural disasters as hurricanes. Compliance with evacuation orders is impressive. Top priority is attached to saving lives. The country's acclaimed programme accounts for the limited toll of Hurricane Michelle in November 2001, which was the most powerful storm since 1944. Five Cubans died in the storm, which wreaked havoc in Jamaica, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This article reviews recent Cuban experience in disaster preparedness, which was achieved despite material scarcity. Since the prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of increased susceptibility to disasters in future, Cuba's record deserves wide attention. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

North Korea's Internet strategy and its political implications

Abstract

During recent years, the role of information technology in shaping politics and social movements in the digital age is drawing increasing scholarly attention. There is, however, little such literature on North Korea as the country remains almost completely cut off from the Internet. Since the mid-1990s, the DPRK government has strategically developed its information and communication technology and has subsequently built a domestic intranet. Although North Korea keeps a minimal presence on the web, there are signs that the country is taking small and cautious steps to allow some social elites to take advantage of the Internet in order to leapfrog its economic development. Indeed, a high-profile defector indicated that North Korea will most likely start allowing wider but limited internet access in the near future. This paper examines North Korea's intranet and Internet policies and explores their political implications by drawing upon first-hand data from Korean sources and existing literature as well as by juxtaposing the North Korean case with other communist regimes such as China and Cuba in terms of their attempts to control and manipulate the Internet. It shows that the DPRK government is likely to learn from the Chinese and Cuban experiences and adopt a ‘Mosquito-Net’ model in controlling the Internet in an effort to attract foreign investment while keeping out information deemed threatening by the regime.     

Introduction

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has emerged as an outspoken challenger to US geopolitical preeminence in the Americas. This study explores the framing practices employed by mainstream newspaper outlets in the United States in their coverage of President Chávez over a ten-year time period—between 1998, the year he was first elected president, and December 2007. This content analysis examines media output from a number of influential newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Using an inductive approach, I identify and critically assess the dominant media frames that emerged over this time period: the Dictator Frame, the Castro Disciple Frame, the Declining Economy Frame, and the Meddler-in-the-Region Frame. I also explore how journalistic norms—like personalization, dramatization, novelty, and authority-order—inform media coverage of this key Latin American leader.     

From autocracy to party government: Interpreting regime changes in Spain and Portugal

The Transition to Democracy in Spain. By José Maravall. London: Croom Helm, 1982. Pp.213. £14.95.

Democratic Politics in Spain. Edited by David S. Bell London: Frances Pinter, 1983. Pp.xiii + 203. £15.00.

Spain, Conditional Democracy. Editedby Christopher Abel and Nissa Torrents. London: Croom Helm, 1984. Pp. 198. £14.95.

Portugal, A Twentieth‐century Interpretation. By TOM Gallagher. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983. Pp.xii + 278. £18.50.

Portugal Since the Revolution: Economic and Political Perspectives. Edited by Jorge Braga de Macedo and Simon Serfaty. Colorado: Westview Press, 1981. Pp.xiv + 217. £13.25.

In Search of Modern Portugal. The Revolution and its Consequences. Edited by Lawrence S. Graham and Douglas L. Wheeler. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1983. Pp.xv + 380. $30.00.     

Notes on contributors

Norris Hundley, Jr.: The Great Thirst. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

William Blomquist: Dividing the Waters: Governing Groundwater in Southern California. San Francisco: Institute of Contemporary Studies, 1992.

Marc Reisner and Sarah Bates: Overtapped Oasis: Reform or Revolution for Western Water. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1990.     

The Philippines: In search of identity

The Philippines: A Singular and a Plural Place, (second edition) by David Joel Steinberg. Westview Press, Oxford and Boulder Co. 1990, xiv + 224 pp. £11.95 paperback. ISBN 0–8133–0766‐X;

Rebellion and Repression in the Philippines, by Richard J. Kessler. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1989. xii+227 pp. £22.50 ($30.00). ISBN 0–300–04406–2;

Red Revolution: Inside the Philippine Guerrilla Movement, by Gregg R. Jones. Westview Press, Boulder Co. and London, 1990. xxii+360 pp. £10.50 paperback. ISBN 0–8733–0877–1;

The Philippine Revolution: The Leader's View, by Jose Maria Sison with Rainer Werning. Taylor and Francis, New York and London, 1989. xxix + 241 pp. £25 cloth, £11 paperback. ISBN 0–8448–1580–2 and 0–8448–1581–0.     

Sociology: A disinvitation?

Among his many books are An Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective; The Capitalist Revolution: Fifty Propositions about Property, Equality, and Liberty; Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Change; Religion in Revolutionary Society; Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion;and In Search of an East Asian Development Model (the latter was published by Transaction).     

Taxing capital gains

From 1969 to 1971 he was a member and from 1972 to 1974 the Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. His major publications include The Fiscal Revolution in America, Presidential Economics,and Governing the $5 Trillion Economy.He is a member of the board of contributors of the Wall Street Journal, where his writings appear frequently.     

Book Reviews

Book review in this article: Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. By Robert D. Putnam, with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti. Regulating Unfair Trade. By Pietro Nivola. Trends in Public Sector Pay: A Study of Nine OECD Countries 1985-1990. Public Management Occasional Papers The Rebirth of Federalism: Slouching Toward Washington. By David B. Walker. Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965-1990. By Chandler Davidson and Bernard Grofman eds.