Cuba: Redefining the Model

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You can also access online the Third World Quarterly journal, volume 37, issue 9, which contains the article co-written by the speakers. Free online access is available during the month of October 2016.

Laurence Whitehead (Oxford), Bert Hoffmann (GIGA, Hamburg), Vegard Bye (Oslo) - Socialist Cuba is undergoing profound change. As the "historic generation" of the Revolution's leaders is preparing its departure from center stage of politics, the island is in the midst of an ambivalent process of crisis and reform. Where is Cuba heading? What impact will the economic reforms have, and how far will they go? How much change is in store for US-Cuban relations after Obama's historic visit this year? Cuban and international authors have addressed these and other questions in a recent issue of Third World Quarterly. The editors of this special section will present its key findings and discuss the perspectives of Cuba's quest to re-define its political, social and economic model.

Laurence Whitehead is a Senior Research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford University, and author of numerous books on politics in Latin America. In the TWQ issue he wrote about "The 'puzzle' of autocratic resilience/regime collapse: the case of Cuba"

Bert Hoffmann is a political scientist at GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, and author of numerous publications on Cuba. In the TWQ issue he wrote about 'Bureaucratic socialism in reform mode: the changing politics of Cuba's post-Fidel era'

Vegard Bye is the coordinator of the Cuba Academic Programme at the University of Oslo

Jointly, Laurence Whitehead and Bert Hoffmann published the volume Debating Cuban Exceptionalism in the Studies of the Americas series (Palgrave 2007).

Discussant: Maxine Molyneux, Professor of Sociology, UCL Institute of the Americas.