The Ghost of Helms-Burton

2019 ◽  
pp. 205-224
Author(s):  
Jonathan C. Benjamin-Alvarado
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Obama Administration ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Executive Action ◽  
Normalization Process ◽  
The U.S

In spite of the significant policy initiatives undertaken by the Barack Obama administration to “normalize” U.S. relations with Cuba, serious barriers and impediments lie ahead. This chapter investigates the daunting policy challenges that face the United States and Cuba in their effort to advance their bilateral diplomatic and economic affairs, owing largely to the draconian conditionality codified in the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996 (Helms–Burton Act). Given the highly partisan and divided nature of executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government, it remains uncertain as to whether Congress will allow progress in the normalization process to move beyond the limits of executive action. The chapter identifies and details the concrete steps that must be undertaken by the Congress to dismantle Helms-Burton, and under what conditions that might occur.

scholarly journals Cuba, United States and fight against drug trafficking: ups and downs of a necessary cooperation

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
Santiago E. Bejerano
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Modern World ◽  
American Continent ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Alternative Scenarios ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Common Security

Given the geostrategic importance of Cuba for the entire American continent and the increasing complexity of the nature of security as such, and accordingly, of the mechanisms of ensuring it in the modern world, the problem of drug trafficking is rather high on the agenda of the U.S.-Cuban relations. The article examines the issue of combating drug trafficking in the context of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States in order to assess the prospects for joint efforts on this track. The author presents a retrospective of mostly unilateral initiatives by U.S. presidents that did not lead to real tangible results, in particular due to the prevailing erroneous approach of militarization in the fight against drug trafficking. The new century requires new forms and a qualitatively higher level of interaction. With a noticeable warming in the dialogue with Cuba under Barack Obama the situation has changed in many respects, and quite a few initiatives of bilateral nature began to bear fruit. Nevertheless, with Donald Trump’s rise to power, there is an obvious setback in the rapprochement, in proof of which the author gives examples of specific destructive steps, although this position of the administration met if not open criticism, then proposals for alternative scenarios of the development of contacts between the states. The potential that exists in both countries for cooperation in this area can be realized provided that the interests of common security prevail over political disagreements and state channels of cooperation are strengthened, with the dynamics of this process being reflected in the situation in the region as a whole.

scholarly journals The United States economy during the first Obama administration (2009-2012)

1970 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-186
Author(s):  
Vitor Eduardo Schincariol
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Macroeconomic Performance ◽  
Obama Administration ◽  
United States Economy

The paper aims to evaluate the macroeconomic performance of the economy of the United States during first administration of Barack Obama (2009-2012).

scholarly journals Dollars, Arms, Words: Barack Obama and the Dilemmas of American Hegemony

2019 ◽  
pp. 24-40
Author(s):  
Mario Del Pero
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Global Economic Crisis ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
American Hegemony ◽  
To Come ◽  
The U.S

This article discusses the foreign policy of Barack Obama and the basic elements and contours of what can be described as a putative “Obama Doctrine”. It argues that, while never precisely stated and outlined, this doctrine constituted an attempt to come to terms with the final manifestation of some ingrained and, after the 2008 global economic crisis, inescapable contradictions and flaws of the model of hegemony the United States had built and projected since the 1970s. To address this novel situation, and the multiple arcs of crisis the U.S. was facing, a radical strategic, diplomatic and discursive shift was needed. Cognisant of it, Obama pursued this change, although not always consistently or successfully, achieving results that appear all the more remarkable when compared with the foreign policies of his predecessor and, after almost two years in office, his successor.

scholarly journals The Strategic Partners and Strategic Competitors between China and United States in the Period of Barack Obama Administration

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Nur Arif Nugraha
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Cooperation ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Obama Administration ◽  
The World ◽  
Strategic Position ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship

This essay will consider a number of perspectives to determine whether the relationship between China and United States is strategic partnersor strategic competitors. During the Obama administration, the policy toward China oscillates between being strategic partners and strategic competitors since the first time he became President in January 2009 until the present time.  In this essay, I will argue that the relationship between China and the United States should be based on partnership rather than competition considering the strategic position of both countries in the world recently, especially in terms of economic cooperation. However, there is still a sense of competition between them, especially in military sectors. Sometimes, the relationship between them in this sector often brings the tense to their relationship. Keywords: Obama administration, policy, strategic partners, strategic competitors, relationship.

Opening Cuba—Negotiating History

2019 ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
Peter Kornbluh ◽  
William M. LeoGrande
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
The Political ◽  
Deliberative Process ◽  
Obama Administration ◽  
Fidel Castro

This chapter introduces the reader to the opening with Cuba under the Barack Obama administration. The chapter describes how this opening came about, and the political and diplomatic negotiations that led up to it. Further, the narrative places the historic opening between Presidents Obama and Fidel Castro in a broader historical bilateral context that was not devoid of communications between the two states. The chapter reinforces the notion that the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba was a deliberative process that included a variety of actors. The result of these efforts was a complex diplomatic process that launched hopes of long term diplomatic normalization between the two states.

The Obama Administration, International Law, and Executive Minimalism

2016 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 646-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley S. Deeks
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Bush Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Obama Administration ◽  
Jus In Bello ◽  
Jus Ad Bellum ◽  
The Face

When President Barack Obama came into office in 2009 in the midst of serious, ongoing terrorist threats to the United States, he confronted important choices about how to approach the bodies of international law that regulate the resort to force and the conduct of armed conflict. By many accounts, the Bush administration had taken a maximalist approach to those bodies of international law, staking out broad substantive claims about what international law permitted in resorting to force and in detaining and treating members of Al Qaeda, and asserting those claims publicly and frequently.The Obama administration has repeatedly taken a notably different tack, employing an approach that we might characterize as “executive minimalism.” That is, the Obama administration has signaled to other states its interest in self-constraint by making fewer bold substantive and rhetorical claims related to the jus ad bellum and jus in bello. It has pursued this objective partly by establishing various policies that authorize a narrower scope of action than what some believe international law permits. In particular contexts, it has also been more hesitant as a rhetorical matter to assert precise legal claims about what international law allows or where international law's limits lie. Accordingly, the Obama administration has sometimes taken action in the face of two (or more) possible legal theories without articulating its specific rationale.

South Korea in 2010

Asian Survey ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor D. Cha ◽  
Katrin Katz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Korea ◽  
East Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Phase ◽  
External Shocks ◽  
Obama Administration ◽  
The Past ◽  
The U.S

For the Obama administration, unforeseen dynamics in East Asia over the past year have escalated the importance of the U.S.-ROK alliance to unprecedented levels for the United States. But the alliance remains vulnerable to external shocks, rendering the continuation of the current phase of unmitigated harmonious ties far from certain.

Acts of Activism ↔ Politics of Possibility

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Giardina ◽  
Norman K. Denzin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Obama Administration ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Critical Imagination

This article examines the context of political life in the United States during the Barack Obama administration, especially as related to right-wing assaults on a progressive political agenda. It also presents an argument for a new performative cultural politics; that is, an interventionist project informed by and committed to acts of activism in the pursuit of a politics of possibility. It concludes by outlining the prevailing lines of inquiry organizing such a project of the critical imagination: that of theory, politics, and performance.

scholarly journals D. Trump's Policy in Latin America: Outcomes and Prospects

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-65
Author(s):  
Petr YAKOVLEV
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Chaos Theory ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Rio Grande ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The U.S

The Trump administration's policy south of the Rio Grande has revived the use of force in the spirit of infamous Monroe Doctrine and big stick diplomacy. As a result, an atmosphere of unpredictability has arisen between the United States and Latin America, and current trends in inter-American relations could be analyzed from the perspective of “controlled chaos” theory. In particular, D. Trump's aggressive political and diplomatic actions have significantly complicated the geopolitical situation in the strategically important Caribbean region. American-Cuban relations, normalized by Barack Obama, sharply deteriorated, and the regime of trade and financial sanctions against Venezuela, against which a real political and propaganda war was launched, was tightened to the utmost extent. The U.S. interaction with the largest countries in the region - Mexico and Brazil - has become more complex and ambiguous.

scholarly journals The Analysis of George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations’ Foreign Policy Documents as a Fundamental Strategic Doctrines of the U.S. Policy in the International Arena

2015 ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
O A Frolova
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
United States Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
The U.S

The article concerns comparative analysis of the U.S. National Security Strategies, developed under the administration of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. As the fundamental points of the United States foreign policy agenda there are selected successive and distinctive provisions of the Republican and Democratic doctrines.

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