Profile of power

Lukas Port recommends a classic analysis of Castro's options and decisions

Writing about Fidel Castro and Cuba in general is a particularly complicated task. The emotive nature of Cuba-related issues, as well as the complexity of the person of the island's Comandante, presents a labyrinth of contradictions. These include the conflicting images of, on the one hand, Fidel Castro as a dictator and, on the other hand, Fidel as a righteous hero of the Cuban people and the Third World. In this book, one cannot but praise the result of Balfour's ability to provide a balanced image of Cuba and its leader.

The work is relatively short, but this rather enhances its quality, as it seems that its author has chosen every single word very carefully to produce a clear concise picture. At the beginning is a brief exploration of Cuba's history and Castro's early political career. The book then examines his pre-1959 endeavours leading up to the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and the rise to power of its leaders. Subsequent chapters examine most major events in Cuba, the country's domestic and foreign policy as well as the role of Fidel Castro. It analyses particularly well the way in which Castro's behaviour changed over time according to different circumstances at home and abroad.

A particular strength of the book is the author's skill in conveying the Cuban context and the difficulty of Cuba running its own affairs, unequally set into a world of two confronting superpowers at first, and later dominated by its greatest ideological enemy as the victor of the Cold War. In other words, Balfour gets down to the core of what it is like to rule a country such as Cuba, with its particular historical heritage, culture and people, whilst facing one of the best financed intelligence services and military apparatus just 90 miles from its shore, aiming to bring the island to its knees by any means.

Understanding in depth the logic of Castro's choices, achievements and mistakes, and the context in which these were made, becomes a safe journey when following Balfour's smoothly flowing and highly readable narrative. The book touches on Fidel's personality, examines some of the secrecy about his personal life, as well as the situation in Cuba to which he responded energetically in order to mobilise, again and again, public support and revive the mythology of the Cuban Revolution. Castro's choices in foreign policy are examined from the point of view of his pragmatism, idealism, convergence of interests and necessity. Balfour also examines the making of Fidel Castro's political character as a result of his personal experience and identifies his imprisonment, guerrilla struggle and the conditions of 'siege' in Cuba as the key influences (pp 190).

The book covers the range of topics including international politics, Cuban nationalism, Castro's family, Cuban political philosophy, government reshuffles, Castro's captivating charisma, cross-cultural examination of semantics and the different use of political concepts in Cuba and abroad. The book is thus not a simple biography nor a typical history book, but rather a rich yet consistent analysis of the country's politics and leader, well explaining the contexts in which difficult decisions had to be made. This sets it apart from other simple or biased biographies.

Balfour also examines the particularity of Cuban socialism and stresses the parallels between the post-colonial nationalist element and similar transitions in the Third World, which used the label of socialism to describe themselves (pp 188):

This reveals the semantic differences in relation to Cuban political discourse between European socialism, Soviet 'real socialism' and the endogenous Cuban construct. Interestingly, Balfour compares Cuba's leader to other nationalists such as Nasser, Nkrumah, Nyerere and Ben Bella in a wider context of post-colonial emancipatory politics (pp 185).

In the final chapter, Balfour cautiously examines the future of Cuba, a topic so often suggested by members of the general public who every now and then notice the latest events in Cuba, as they occasionally capture the headlines of world media. Balfour examines the challenges the country is currently facing, the social influence of the tourist sector, the impact of Cuba's young generation, power struggles within the political apparatus, and most of all examines the concept of ´Castroism´ (pp 193), which he argues is likely to guide the country's politics in the future, be it towards political pluralism or containment of its current political system. In this way he provides a valid answer to most questions about the country's future (pp 180):

Balfour is not uncritical of Cuba and its leader, rejecting some of the justifications of past decisions; but his criticism is balanced and carefully unpacked. He also explains the 'enormous admiration' that many ordinary Cubans feel for Castro.

The book includes photographs, which illustrate well the different stages of Castro's political career, starting with an image of his detention in Mexico in 1956 and continuing with the Sierra Maestra struggle; his friendship with Che Guevara and the USSR; as well as the visit of Pope John Paul II. The visual narrative of the chosen images ends in a striking photograph from a session of Cuba's parliament, where Castro's brother Raúl stares sadly at an empty chair.

The book includes a literature review, which informs the reader of the general dearth of balanced accounts of Fidel Castro's life and work. It then moves on to present various options and best sources, which, in the author's view, go beyond shallow journalism or biased political campaigning.

It is obvious why Castro has come out in an updated third edition. It represents first-class academic writing from a specialist who displays admirable objectivity. The book will equally serve both Cuba experts and the lay reader interested in gaining a fundamental understanding of the country and the man.

Lukas Port is a doctoral student in Politics and Hispanic Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK.


Copyright

Copyright for this work is held jointly between Lukas Port and the International Journal of Cuban Studies under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative 3.0 Licence
IJCS Volume 2 Issue 1 June 2009