Economic Normalization with Cuba

Will the Obama administration's decision to normalize relations with Cuba usher in a new era of economic cooperation, trade, and investment between the two countries? This prescient book, published only eight months before President Obama's historic announcement at the end of 2014, provides answers to that question and offers a roadmap for a sequenced lifting of the Cold War era economic sanctions against Cuba. The authors, Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Barbara Kotschwar, lay out the difficulties of achieving a dynamic economic relationship. They caution that a unilateral dismantling of US sanctions without insuring that proper institutions are in place in Cuba could squander this golden opportunity for US companies and hurt Cubans. They argue that US policies should encourage Cuba to liberalize its economy and adopt democratic institutions, so that it does not transition from a Communist dictatorship to a corrupt and authoritarian oligarchy. This farsighted book, produced in anticipation of an opening with Cuba that seemed impossible to some skeptics, is a must-read for anyone interested in the evolution of a historically contentious relationship that promises to evolve productively if the right policies are pursued.