“Diplomacy Meets Migration：US Relations with Cuba during the Cold War”(Cambridge University Press, 2018)

Hideaki Kami(Associate Professor at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Kanagawa University, Yokohama)

Drawing on international and multi-archival research, this study thus complicates traditional diplomatic historical accounts that mainly focus on the two national capitals. The book explains how the U.S. government reformulated its Cuban policy in response to Fidel Castro’s institutionalization of power, while at the same time, trying to build a new relationship with the Cuban-American community as the latter forged a new, politically mobilized constituency within U.S. society. 　By analyzing Washington’s relations with Havana and Miami, this study illuminates the intersection between migration and diplomacy. This book deals with how migration emerged as a critical issue that influenced the making of foreign policy, as well as how migrants themselves actively pursued foreign policy agendas and priorities that did not necessarily match those of policymakers in the capitals. Migration control and migrant politics were important components of U.S.-Cuban relations, and both need to be situated into the broader context of international politics. 　This book discusses the ways in which human migration interacted with international politics across the Florida Straits. In doing so, its story traces the historical trajectory of U.S.-Cuban relations and illuminates how migration played a fundamental role in creating a deadlock in U.S.-Cuban relations. The migration-diplomacy dynamic that I highlight in this study requires further research not only for better understanding of U.S.-Cuban relations, but also for deeper analysis of inter-American relations. 　Encouraged by the receipt of this prestigious award, I will continue to explore this important topic.

Profile
Ph.D. in History, The Ohio State University, 2015; M.A. in Area Studies (North America), Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 2010; and B.A. in Area Studies (Latin America), Faculty of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 2008. Hideaki Kami is an associate professor at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Kanagawa University, Yokohama, who specializes in diplomatic and international history, North American studies, and Latin American studies. He has published: Diplomacy Meets Migration: US Relations with Cuba during the Cold War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018); and “The Memory of the War of 1898: The United States, Cuba, and Independence of Puerto Rico,” International Relations [Kokusaiseiji] 187 (2017): 16-29 (Japanese), among others.