Autumn 2021 Seminars at the University of Buckingham

The IISC and University of Buckingham Humanities Research Institute have arranged for two experts to speak on the topics of the Cuban economy and the nature of the Cuban political system. Please join us either in person or online.

Seminar

The US move towards Cuba and the Cuban move towards the market

Since 17 December 2014 when the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba was announced, there has been an intensified focus on Cuba in the media. Speculation is mounting that the United States is preparing to lift its 50-year-old economic embargo of the island. This paper places this diplomatic development in the broader context of the process of economic and political liberalisation that has been taking place in the island under the leadership of Raúl Castro and the changing demographics of southern Florida.

Al Jazeera Preview

Screening: Cuba for Sale + Q&A

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with IISC Chairman Dr Stephen Wilkinson, journalists Juliana Ruhfus, Seamus Mirodan and others.

Cuba Summit, Washington DC, 3 Dec., 2015

Recent changes in Cuba's foreign investment law and a shift in US-Cuban relations have opened up new opportunities for American companies interested in doing business there. Our first Cuba Summit in the US will explore these opportunities, as well as the challenges facing new entrants into the Cuban market.

Public seminar: The market as master or servant? Cuba’s attempt at a new ‘middle way’

In this paper, Dr Wilkinson examines the problems of the Cuba's centrally planned economy from the point of view of the classical liberal economists, Freidrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, and argues that they would see the recent policy changes as a tacit admission that Cuba's command economy is a failure. However, they would also warn the Cuban government that by hanging on to an interventionist role, this bold new experiment is doomed to fail as well.

Public Seminar and Book Launch: Cuba’s Cultural Policy

JOIN Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, author of the new book: To Defend the Revolution Is to Defend Culture: The Cultural Policy of the Cuban Revolution, for an evening of discussion and debate about the achievements of the Cuban revolution ion the cultural sphere.