Diplomacy Meets Migration: US Relations with Cuba during the Cold War

Melissa Hampton of the University of Minnesota reviews Diplomacy Meets Migration: US Relations with Cuba during the Cold War by Hideaki Kami. In this book, Kami draws on declassified US and Cuban diplomatic sources, as well as Miami-Cuban lobby records, to challenge traditional interpretations that mainly focus on the two national capitals, Washington and Havana. By incorporating Miami into the story of foreign affairs, Kami assesses the intersection between migration and diplomacy, and considers how migration emerged as a critical issue that shaped the dynamism of US relations with Cuba. Kami demonstrates that the US government reformulated its Cuban policy in response to Fidel Castro’s institutionalization of power, while simultaneously trying to build a new relationship with the Miami Cuban community, a new, politically mobilized constituency within US society. The book shows how both migration control and migrant politics became important components of US foreign policy, which in turn influenced Cuban policy toward the United States.

Read the book review at https://doi.org/10.1177/0197918319855071