Hare Featured in Latin America Advisor Discussing Cuba & COVID
Ambassador Paul Webster Hare, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently featured in the Latin America Advisor, a publication of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington D.C. think tank.
The publication posed the question, what are the most important ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Cuba’s economy, which was already struggling prior to the health crisis, and is it likely to recover any time soon? Hare cited the evaporation of the country’s tourism industry and self-employed sector – such as Airbnb rentals and restaurants – as the biggest hit from the coronavirus pandemic. However, he did explain that the country has managed to bring in additional capital during these hard times by using it’s “Doctor Diplomacy” strategy.
An excerpt:
Cuban tourism may rebound more quickly than most destinations when diaspora families resume visits. Remittances are a priority to maintain for Cuba during the pandemic to support families with lost income. But in five months, the government may see relief with the U.S. elections as Biden is seeking to reverse Trump’s coercive policies. Both the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes have so far survived despite the most stringent U.S. sanctions.
The full story can be read here.
Hare’s previous writings on Cuba’s “Doctor Diplomacy” strategy can be found here.
Amb. Paul Hare was a British diplomat for 30 years and the British ambassador to Cuba from 2001-04. He now teaches classes at Boston University on Diplomatic Practice, Arms Control, Intercultural Communication, and on Cuba in Transition. His novel, “Moncada — A Cuban Story,” set in modern Cuba, was published in 2010. His book, “Making Diplomacy Work; Intelligent Innovation for the Modern World” was published in 2015.