May 21, 2008: Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People

When Repression Masquerades as Social Justice: Confessions of a Cuban Boy

In connection with the May 21 Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People, the Foreign Policy Research Institute brings to your attention this 2007 essay by Yale Professor and Cuban exile Carlos Eire, originally presented as a lecture in May 2007 at the National Constitution Center, which hosted our weekend-long History Institute for Teachers on Living Without Freedom.

Imagine having lived in a repressive state, and then from the moment you reach the United States constantly being told what a wonderful place you came from and how wonderful the Castro revolution has been to your people. That’s my story and why I wrote my memoir.

Read “Confessions of a Cuban Boy”

FPRI Featured Bulletin: E-Notes May 2008

Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829 – 1877

Walter McDougall

FThe Civil War era, it seems to me, hard-wired four telling traits into Americans’ character, traits they would go on to display time and again during their later career as a world power— a careless lack of responsibility,amnesia, an amazing power of resilience, and, to paraphrase G. K. Chesterton, a nationalism with the soul of a church. That coalescence of Union and Creed, power and faith, rendered Americans uniquely prone to sanctimony, but also uniquely immune to cynicism.

Read “Throes of Democracy”

FPRI Featured Bulletin: FootNotes May 2008

China’s Relations with the West: The Role of Taiwan and Hong Kong

By Nancy Bernkopf Tucker

From the Chinese perspective, so long as Hong Kong and Taiwan remain beyond China’s control, China’s century of humiliation at the hands of Westerners continues. War with China over Taiwan is in fact possible, whether by accident, inadvertence, or design.

Read “China’s Relations with the West”

FPRI Featured Bulletin: E-Notes May 2008

The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace

Aaron David Miller

For eight years under Bill Clinton, we stumbled at Arab-Israeli peacemaking; for eight years under President Bush we stumbled at how to make war, at least in this part of the world. What is it about America, the greatest power on earth, that accounts for this situation? Why can’t we seem to get it right?

Read “The Much Too Promised Land”

Recent articles

• Los Zetas: the Ruthless Army Spawned by a Mexican Drug Cartel, George W. Grayson, 5/2008
• More Than Just Tools and Toys: Teaching Innovation, Lawrence Husick, 5/2008
• Robert Kaplan on the New Balance of Power, 4/2008
• Kosovo: The Revenge of CNN and the Politics of Emotion, Michael Radu, 4/2008
• More past articles by author · date · subject · FPRI publication

Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program

The Global "Go-To Think Tanks”: The Leading Public Policy Research Organizations in the World

By James G. McGann

Gone are the days when a think tank could operate with the motto “research it, write it and they will find it”. Today, think tanks must be lean, mean, policy machines. The report that follows summarizes the findings of a pilot project to identify some of the leading think tanks in the world, and provides lists of what might be called the “go to think tanks” in every region.

• View The Global "Go-To Think Tanks”: The Leading Public Policy Research Organizations in the World, 2007 (24 pages, 265K )
• More about the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at FPRI

From the archives

• Spotlight on Cuba: When Repression Masquerades as Social Justice: Confessions of a Cuban Boy
• Spotlight on Iran: Iran: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Tradition of Persian Statecraft, Adda B. Bozeman, in Orbis, Summer 1979 (1.3MB )
• Spotlight on Iran: War and the Clash of Ideas, Adda B. Bozeman, in Orbis, Spring 1976 (2.7MB )