Cuba and the United States: after Venezuela and Iran, a tension’s conflict
Washington’s threats against Cuba have been going on for months. Actually, the relationships between the two countries have never been positive, but they have switched between tense moments and stable ones. Nowadays, however, with the current Trump’s administration, the divergences are real intimidations, more similar to high political and economic pressure rather than a charge for the intolerance of the Cuban Government.
USA are aiming at widening the impact of their pressures on energy embargos; they aim at isolating the Cuban supply through the impossibility of concluding trade exchanges with historical partners Russia, China and Iran. Moreover, Maduro’s arrest on 3rd January gave a strong shock to the isle. The partnership between Caracas and Avana didn’t only have an ideological point between the two countries, but it helps to manage their trade in order to mislead the restrictions suffered by both countries. By selling raw oil at a lower cost, Caracas gave Cuba high-qualified human resources, in addition, a surplus of purchased raw oil, avoiding Caracas’ restrictions.
Should the – Venezuelan and Iranian government be interpreted as an integrated part of America First? During the 2024 election campaign, different analysts interpreted Trump’s isolation as a potential twist for international political affairs, thinking of an ongoing disengagement of the United States from the global “Great Play”, in order to focus resources on domestic politics. It didn’t happen: Washington’s aggression and its strong intervention, sometimes irrational, don't seem to be similar to endogamic politics, don’t they?
Neglecting the strong American presidentialism, which has historically favoured political choices strongly personal, flexible and dynamic, American influence towards its strategic goals aim at raising the domestic security, at least this is what it seems. In Trump's ideas, it is important to have a strategic advantage towards one’s competitors, like China, that could assure domestic stability. This way of thinking, similar to the conservatory “War Hawks”, has the domestic stability strongly connected to the strategic security that the USA has in the global panorama.
It is difficult to define how this direction yields to Trump’s goals, mostly impossible. There are a lot of problems in the republican wing, and it is essential to understand how this situation can imply in the MidTerm in November. A weak majority, or even bicephalic, in the Chambers could be an obstacle to the international Trump’s politics and, as a consequence, to the stability of the USA.
Lucas Torres
USA, Donald Trump: an interventionist isolationist?
The politics of the American president Donald Trump between 2024-2026 highlighted a lot of contradictions of the political direction of the United States. The political dilemma regards two categories of classical diplomacy: isolationism and interventionism.
Trump was different in the election campaign thanks to his slogan “America First”. Actually, this isn’t anything new in American politics and it represents a trend that has always been present in the different governments. This policy wants to focus on the goals for the national interest and a total sovereignty of the Country, beside treaties, alliances and international engagement. This attitude occurred immediately after the American Revolution, in order to protect a new nation that wasn’t able to fight militarily with the strong European empires.
Trump’s politics followed this thought: from the retirement of the trade treaties, to the reconsideration of the historical alliances, and even the promise to build a “big, beautiful wall” in all the national borders. These are the best conditions for isolation politics, aren’t they?
However, History showed something different, indeed the United States have rarely adopted an isolationist attitude. Starting from the Monroe Doctrine, which thought of “An America for the American”, far away from the European influences; the “Backyard” towards the Latin American countries. US’ politics started defending all the independent states of South America, but now the country wants to control them. As well as Donald Trump. Venezuela and Cuba are the case in point.
Defeating Nicolas Maduro’s government didn’t include the measures for the following times. The first goals weren’t indeed the establishment of a strong democracy and a regional security. It was only an example of unilateral power by the American government.
The logic of Trump’s “interventional isolationism” is everywhere in the world: from Cuba to Venezuela and even Denmar, which is an historical ally and member of NATO, with the Greenland case.
Trump pursues only strategic (or personal) interests, rather than respecting international rules. In a world that, instead, the United States dream to represent.
Bianca Colli
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