Register Now: ASCE 2021 Conference (4-6 January 2021)--"Caught in a Perfect 'Storm': Are Havana's Responses Sufficient?

 Reminder-- registration is now open for the 2021 ASCE Conference--Caught in a Perfect Storm: Are Havana's Responses Sufficient?, which is scheduled to take place 4-6 January 2021.

Conference Website may be accessed here: With information about participants, registration, and useful inks.

Pre-Conference Interview Series These may be accessed via CPE YouTube Channel. Follow the link above for the listing of all interviews and links to your favorites.

Concept Note: The theme of ASCE’s January conference will focus on Cuba’s current economic problems and the Cuban governments announced responses (reforms). The focus will be on analysis of policies and suggested policies that improve those reforms. Indeed, the issue of Reform, yet again, as it has so many times over the long arc of the history of post “revolutionary” Cuba, has been one of developing elegant statements of idealized objectives and then offering what in retrospect might be characterized second or third best solutions; and that might be the only thing on offer now. Yet even these second best solutions can be used to bring significant improvements to the Cuban economy.

The Conference Program may be accessed HERE. The Conference extends over three days and offers six exciting events. They include five panels: They include (1) Cuba's Economic Situation and Strategy; (2) Cuba's External Relations; (3) US-Cuba Economic Relations; (4) Cuban Agricultural Challenges; an (5) the Cuba-Venezuela Crisis. In addition Jorge Dominguez has organized a marvelous discussion around the book La Cuba que quisimos: Essays on the New Cuban Constitution.

Registration is required but free; space is limited. Registration permits the user to attend any combination of the six Conference events. Those wishing to attend all events, for example, must register for all six. Those wishing to attend fewer events may register for those panels of interest to them. Please contact us with questions. Attendance for each event requires a separate registration. Registration links for each of the Panels follows below. Or access via this QR Code:

January 2021 ASCE Virtual Meeting

Caught in a Perfect Storm: Are Havana's Responses Sufficient?,

January 4-6, 2021

 

Monday, January 4, 2021

10:00 am-12:00 noon

1.     Cuba’s Economic Situation and Strategy

  Registration Link 

https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-3DfWzl2RjONgS7I5xJTRA  

Chair: Carlos Seiglie, Rutgers University

Ernesto Hernández-Catá, “The Misery of Merchandise Exports and the Sustainability of the Cuban Balance of Payments”

Luis Luis, "Cuba: Dollar Crunch, Dollarization and Devaluation”

Jorge Sanguinetty, “Why is Cuba´s Response to the Economic Crisis Insufficient?”

Tamarys L. Bahamonde-Perez, University of Delaware, “Cuba’s Bureaucratic System and the Economic Crisis” 

 

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2:00 pm-4:00 pm

2.     External Relations

 Registration Link

https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TYgtlP-PQ0Ct_I7g29c9xg 

Chair: Gary Maybarduk, U.S. Department of State (retired)

Yuri González Hernández, Havana attorney,and Larry Catá-Backer, Pennsylvania State University, “Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Cuba and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”  

Vadim Grishim, George Washington University, “A Point of No Return: The Ongoing Cuban Crisis in a Historical Framework”

Armando Chaguaceda, Gobierno y Análisis Político AC, “Poder Incisivo y Tecnología Política: presencia e imagen cubana en la academia latinoamericanista” 

Larry Catá Backer, Pennsylvania State University, and Rafael Velázquez Pérez, Universidad de Vigo/Universidad de Holguín, “Relaciones entre Cuba, EU y España” (Cuba-EU-Spain Relations)"

 

 

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

10:00 am-12:00 noon

3.     U.S.-Cuba Economic Relations

Registration Link

https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UDVzxrJRQfCONf7FBh8P1A 

 

Chair: Natalia Delgado, Columbia University

Gary Maybarduk, U.S. Department of State (retired), "Encouraging Cuba's Economic Reform: Can America Help?"

Paolo Spadoni, Augusta University, “The Economic Impact of Trump’s Measures Against Cuba”

Caroline McCollough, Florida International University, “The Helms-Burton Act: Then and Now”

Mrinalini Tankha, Portland State University, “Detained Settlements: Electronic Payment Infrastructures and Precarity in US-Cuba Financial Transactions” 

Ricardo Herrero, Cuba Study Group, "US-Cuba Private Sector Engagement: Merits and Missed
Opportunities”

 

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2:00 pm-4:00 pm

4.     Agriculture

Registration Link

https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fEMVxUBbQN6ZLcSpgiiG0w 

 

Chair: Larry Catá Backer, Penn State University

Mario A. Gonzalez-Corzo, Lehman College, and Armando Nova, Universidad de la Habana, "Desarrollo de la Producción Agropecuaria en Cuba. Plan de Soberanía Alimentaria y Nutricional."  (Presentation may be conducted in English by M.G. Corzo.) 

William Messina, University of Florida, “Cuba’s Agricultural Production and Trade Patterns: Good News or Bad News?”

Juan Tomás Sánchez, “La ‘Tarea Ordenamiento” y el cultivo de la tierra”

Joan Martínez Evora, University of Miami, School of Business, “Land and Peasants in Cuba: To Have and to Hold?”

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Wednesday, January 6, 2021

10:00 am-12:00 noon

Registration Link

 https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HerGxt0RQIi3cCSns6XySQ

 

5.     Book Discussion: La Cuba que quisimos. Essays on the New Cuban Constitution 

 

The book selects and publishes articles that first appeared on the Cuba Posible website, as well as never-published material, regarding Cuba’s new Constitution. 

Moderator and panelist: Claudia González Marrero, Justus-Liebig University (Gießen, Germany) and Universidad Sergio Arboleda

Panelists: Elaine Acosta, visiting researcher, Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University

Jorge I. Domínguez, retired, former Professor of Government, Harvard University 

Lenier González Mederos, former Assistant Director, Cuba Posible, and co-editor, Espacio Laical

Roberto Veiga González, former Director, Cuba Posible, and co-editor, Espacio Laical; member,  Inter American Dialogue

 

 

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2:00 pm-4:00 pm

6.     Contemporary Crises in Cuba and Venezuela

Registration Link

https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qi_vA7XUQCGBTSn5Tw1HFA 

 

 

Chair: Beatriz Casals, Board of Directors, Bacardi Family Foundation and Board of Advisors, Georgetown University, School of Government, Democracy and Governance Program 

Silvia Pedraza, University of Michigan, "Contemporary Crisis in Cuba"
Carlos A. Romero, Universidad Central de Venezuela, "Contemporary Crisis in Venezuela" 
José Manuel Puente, Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA), Caracas, and Oxford University, London, "Venezuela in the Stage of Macroeconomic Collapse: A Historical and Comparative Analysis." 
Domingo Amuchastegui, Former Intelligence Analyst, Historian, and Professor of International Relations, "Venezuela's Elections, the Fragmented Opposition, and the United States" 

Discussant:  Efraín Velázquez, Presidente, Consejo de Economía Nacional de Venezuela