International Relations Major, Thucydides

Now that I'm decrepit by Tumblr standards, IR Major is maturing into a (marginally) more polished newsletter. Don't worry, gifs will still abound! Every Wednesday, I’m sending out articles and job/internship listings, along with a healthy dose of topless Putin pics.

I just sent out this week’s newsletter, but if you missed it, you can sign up here.

This is one of the best (English) articles I've read that really gets at just how *huge* a deal opening relations with Cuba is for the US's relationship with the rest of Latin America. Worth a full read. A change in policy toward Cuba was long, long overdue.

Washington’s isolation of Cuba has long been a defining fixture of Latin American politics, something that has united governments across the region, regardless of their ideologies. Even some of Washington’s close allies in the Americas have rallied to Cuba’s side.

Now, Mr. Obama’s restoration of diplomatic ties with Cuba is snatching a major cudgel from his critics and potentially restoring some of Washington’s influence in a region where rivals like China have long chipped away at America’s primacy.

“We never thought we would see this moment,” said Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla who chided the Obama administration last year over the National Security Agency’s surveillance of her and her top aides. She called the deal with Cuba “a moment which marks a change in civilization.”

...

The thaw comes just a few months before the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of hemispheric leaders in Panama under the Organization of American States, the Washington-based group from which Cuba was suspended in 1962.

The Panamanian hosts confirmed earlier this month that Cuba would attend the summit for the first time, making for a potentially awkward meeting for American officials.

...

One senior Obama administration official said that pressure from the region on Washington’s Cuba policy had crept into and impeded other discussions.

While I can't say I'm surprised (read this Congressional hearing on extraordinary rendition from back in 2007), I am horrified, unsettled, and disgusted.

"Sometimes I get confused Kosovo and Montenegro"

This little kid is my spirit animal.