Digital Commons Network^™

Cuban Embargo: An Insufficient Measure To Encourage Us Foreign Policy Interests, Esme Jm Prowse

Major Papers

This major paper examines the Cuban embargo as an ineffective hard power policy and explores the potential of soft, hard, and smart power as alternative approaches to resolve the failures of the 60-year-old blockade. The paper analyzes the historical context and rationale behind the embargo and assesses its impact on Cuban-American relations, regional stability, and U.S. national interests. The study argues that the embargo has failed to achieve its intended goals and has instead perpetuated a cycle of hostility, isolation, and human rights abuses. By drawing on the theoretical frameworks of soft, hard, and smart power, the paper presents policy …

Consequences Of U.S. Intervention In Socialist Latin America, William Chao

Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to show the harmful effects of contemporary interventionist attempts by the United States on socialist Latin American countries such as Cuba and Venezuela. The United States continues to meddle with the politics and economies of various countries with the goal of establishing a new government that is favorable to the capitalist practices of the United States. By looking at two key moments: the Covid-19 outbreak in Cuba and the aftermath of the 2018 Venezuelan presidential elections, it becomes clear to see the damage done by harsh embargoes and U.S. support of use for military violence against the …

Strategic Consequences: How Executive And Organizational Decision-Making Impacts The Outcome Of Unconventional Warfare, Joseph Osborne

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Conventional academic discussion vis-à-vis America’s Special Operations Forces, is largely focused at the tactical and operational level of analysis. This means the emphasis on explaining outcomes is placed on personnel (recruiting, assessing, selecting, and training), cutting edge equipment, innovative tactics, or advanced command and control procedures. Addressing this long-standing trend, I argue that factors well beyond the widely accepted explanations for success or failure are in play. Additionally, these factors are understandable, are manageable, and may have as great or greater an impact on the outcome of a campaign as any tactical consideration. Using the narrowly defined and discrete special …

Travel To Cuba: A Case Study Of Media Branding In A Politicized Context, Yaneisis Infante

Student Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to detail a case study of U.S. tourism to Cuba in a politicized context; specifically, to compare and contrast the Obama and Trump administrations. This study seeks to examine how the Cuban “brand” and the island’s overall tourism strategy is formulated, circulated, shaped and reshaped by various actors and the public in the changing context of the newly antagonistic bilateral U.S.-Cuba political relationship. The research questions explore issues of how diplomatic relations impact Cuban tourism and advertising messaging. This paper also discusses the changes in the U.S. news media coverage of Cuba as a …

Divided Agencies: Internal Strife In The Fight Against Castro, Stephanie R. Schmidt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. State Department differed in their approaches to dealing with the Castro regime from 1959 through the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Using declassified documents from the CIA and State Department, I argue that the approaches of the CIA in dealing with the Castro regime were more aggressive than the approaches of the U.S. State Department. Many of the primary sources used in this work were accessed in the CIA electronic reading room and on the office of the historian website. The office of the historian is an …

Degrowth Lessons From Cuba, Claire S. Bayler

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Cuba is the global leader in practicing agroecology, but agroecology is just one component of a larger climate-ready socio-economic system. Degrowth economics address the need to constrain our total global metabolism to within biophysical limits, while allowing opportunity and resources for "underdeveloped" countries to rebuild themselves under new terms. Degrowth recognizes the role of overdeveloped countries in surpassing the ecological limits of our planet at the cost of wellbeing for billions of dispossessed people within and between countries. Cuba's circumstances during and following the Special Period exemplify both sides of the degrowth scenario, as well as demonstrating policy and grassroots …

Choteo Cubano: Humor As A Critical Tool In Twentieth-Century Cuban Theater, Rebecca L. Salois

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project analyzes the incorporation of choteo in specific Cuban theater texts written during three distinct periods in twentieth-century Cuban history, all of which coincide with specific moments of social, political, and/or economic unrest or transition. Choteo in the theater has served as a tool to demonstrate discontent and frustration with authority figures in various contexts. As that need has altered over time, so too has the approach that playwrights have taken to speak out about these issues. I suggest that by responding to changing circumstances with choteo, confronting a difficult situation is more palatable to audiences or readers than …

Tres Danzas Cubanas By Alejandro García Caturla: A Transcription For Wind Orchestra With Accompanying Biographical Sketch And Transcription Method, Darrell Brown

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Alejandro García Caturla was a Modernist Cuban composer of the early 20th Century. In his compositions and orchestrations, Caturla predominantly featured woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments (and incorporated Afro-Cuban percussion instruments). Caturla’s musical vernacular is a hybridization of styles, not just of the colloquial idioms of Cuba and the music of the European avant-garde, but of the unification of the island’s musical cultures. One of Caturla’s earliest, international successes was his orchestral work Tres danzas cubanas written in 1929. This document includes the creation of a new transcription for wind orchestra of the three-movement work. A biographical sketch of Caturla’s …

Laughing In The Face Of Oppression: The Nature Of Political Satire Under Different Types Of Political Regimes, Victoria Villavicencio Pérez

Honors Program Theses

This research examines how different types of political regimes shape the nature of the political satire produced under them. Unlike traditional journalism, the sly character of political humor may enable it to operate with more freedom than other forms of media while still providing social critique. This research examines three different case studies: the United States (democracy), Venezuela (semi-authoritarian), and Cuba (authoritarian) and evaluates their satire on how openly critical it is and what type of censorship it suffers. Through extensive content analysis of satirical work produced within the country, as well as a historical research into the censorship of …

U.S. State Building And The Second Amendment, Darren Dale Gil

Dissertations

This dissertation used a comparative case study strategy employing a mixed methods thematic content analysis approach¹ to explore U.S. government support for Second Amendment freedoms as compared to other freedoms in the U.S. Bill of Rights in American-led state-building projects in Cuba (1898-1901), Germany (1945-1949), and Iraq (2003-2005). The dissertation tested for Republican and Democratic political party support regarding Second Amendment freedoms in U.S. state-building projects. Findings from the three case studies showed that the American government did not support individual arms rights in its state-building efforts as it did with the other nine Bill of Rights freedoms. Findings …

Three Essays On Economic Stages And Transition, Ricardo R. Fuentes-Ramírez

Doctoral Dissertations

Cuba and Venezuela have been argued to be examples of state capitalism, populist capitalism, socialism, or simply the ambiguous “mixed economy.” By focusing on these countries as social formations in movement, or in transition, a more adequate understanding is presented. The first essay develops a theory of socialist transition, with focus on the dynamic, rather than static character of socialism. Furthermore, worker cooperatives are analyzed with a focus on the roles they play in the different stages of the transition to socialism. Finally, this framework is utilized to analyze the experience of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. The second essay …

Cuba After Fidel: Economic Reform, Political Liberalization And Foreign Policy (2006–2014), Arturo Lopez-Levy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation discussed Cuba's processes of economic reform and political liberalization, and their impact on Cuba's foreign policy's adaptation to the post-Cold War. The first part of the dissertation explains economic reform and political liberalization from the perspective of partial reform equilibrium as a result of the Cuban Communist Party's focus on domestic stability and international legitimacy. The second part of the dissertation focused on Cuba's foreign policy dynamics associated to the domestic reform, the changes in the international system after the end of the Cold War and the asymmetric conflict between Cuba and the United States.

Shifting Relations Suggest The Start Of A “New Chapter” With Cuba—Or Do They?: Portrayal Of Cuba In The New York Times, January 2014-July 2015, Xitlaly Sanchez

Scripps Senior Theses

The United States and Cuba announced that they would begin the process of restoring diplomatic relations in December 2014 after over fifty years of political disengagement. The shift in foreign policy produced a plethora of news articles. What do newspaper articles, in particular articles in The New York Times published between January 2014-July 2015, reveal about how, if at all, the representation of Cuba has changed since the two countries have initiated the process of restoring relations? How did the U.S. public react to this change? A qualitative content analysis of 117 articles from The New York Times reveal that …

Paris And Havana: A Century Of Mutual Influence, Laila Pedro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation employs an interdisciplinary approach to trace the history of exchange and influence between Cuban, French, and Francophone Caribbean artists in the twentieth century. I argue, first, that there is a unique and largely unexplored tradition of dialogue, collaboration, and mutual admiration between Cuban, French and Francophone artists; second, that a recurring and essential theme in these artworks is the representation of the human body; and third, that this relationship ought not to be understood within the confines of a single genre, but must be read as a series of dialogues that are both ekphrastic (that is, they rely …

Politics And Education: The Nicaraguan Literacy Crusade, Teresa Squires Osborne

Dissertations and Theses

The Nicaraguan Literacy Crusade of 1980, carried out in the aftermath,of a long and destructive revolution, was able, in five months time, to decrease the nation's illiteracy rate from 50 percent to 13 percent. The newly fonned Nicaraguan government, recognizing the political nature of education, viewed its Literacy Crusade as a major step· in the development of a "new", post-revolutionary Nicaragua.

As a means of comparison, two other literacy campaigns are also examined: the Cuban campaign of 1961, and the UNESCO-sponsored Experimental World Literacy Programme, in place from 1965-1973.

The Cuban campaign served as a precursor to the Nicaraguan effort. …

Iran; Nicaragua; Cuba; An Analysis Of Revolutions, Neil Moynihan

Honors Theses

Can these revolutions be explained by the withdrawal of the United States? It seems not. Can all three revolutions fit under any one theory of revolution? The answer here will probably also be: no; each theory, however, gives valuable hints about what aspects of each revolution one should analyze.