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Shawn Bryant

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Peace — Pedagogy — Praxis

Freelance Academic
Teacher, Researcher, Facilitator, and Consultant

Lecturer in the MA program in peace studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

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Catalina Vallejo Piedrahíta

Universidad EAFIT

University of Innsbruck

Paula Ditzel Facci

Eastern Mennonite University

Dr Regina U Hess - Birthing an Ancient Future - Multidisciplinary Council of Peace-Builders

Rosemarie Anderson

Sofia University (USA)

Brian L Lancaster

Liverpool John Moores University

Jessica Hawkins

University of Innsbruck

Christopher Courtheyn

Boise State University

University of Innsbruck

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Papers by Shawn Bryant

Conflicting Peaces : Engaging with Diversities in Friction

While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we a... more While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we approach the question — what happens when diversity also involves conflicting approaches to peace? This paper contains the authors’ reflections on the colloquium with the same title held in the On Diversity Conference 2012 in Vancouver, where the authors and participants explored peace itself as an expression of diversity. We argue that an attempt to answer this question requires a change in focus; if there is no longer a unifying peace, how can we engage with diversity in a plurality of conflicting peaces? Mainstream peace and conflict studies literature understands conflict as opposite to peace. Supported in contemporary critical research, we argue that the concept of peace rather than being perfect, absolute and pure is in fact impure, diverse, and conflictive. Hence, an understanding of peace that attempts to embrace diversity will necessarily be relational, include conflict and engag...

Finding Peace in the Tension between Homogeneity and Diversity

The International Journal of Organizational Diversity, 2013

The dominant institutional approach to peace is that the nation-state must create peace through u... more The dominant institutional approach to peace is that the nation-state must create peace through unity and homogeneity: one nation, one language, one law, and one national economy. The prospect of diversity implies a chaos that is abhorred, categorized, systematized, and neatly ordered. Yet this process of attempting to create peace through unity suppresses the natural forces of differentiation, and thus creates fertile ground for the escalation of conflicts. Alternatively, the prospect of unending variations seems to create the impossibility of finding any common ground. Peace, in this presentation, is relational, and as this paper assumes that the creation of value also depends on relations and agreements, it seems relevant to focus some light on the role of diversity in understandings of economics, and to question the assumptions of the discourses of economics and development. This discussion intends to suggest that through the acknowledgement of the existence of a plurality of economic systems, the possibility can be created to imagine a peace of dynamic interactions of diversity.

Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces

Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical pluralit... more Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical plurality, this dissertation investigates different interpretations of what can be summed up as economics. The purpose is to investigate and explore the concept of transrational approaches to economics. This is done by using Wolfgang Dietrich's Theory of the Many Peaces and applying it to economics. Dietrich lays out five families of peaces: energetic, moral, modern, postmodern, and transrational, the final being a dynamic synthesis of the first four. Each peace family has its own unique ontology and epistemology, which is in turn used to explain how economics manifests in each family. The main body of this dissertation is thus an ontological overview of economics in history and culture. Six common threads are compared in each family: time, justice, relationships, currency, environment, and peace. The insights from the four constituent families of peaces are gathered to offer postulates of transrational approaches to economics. I would like to thank my supervisor, Wolfgang Dietrich, for guiding me through this process and providing encouraging feedback when I needed it the most. I carry deep gratitude for my mother, Margaret Bryant, who has supported me in innumerable ways, big and small, in getting to this stage of my life, and most importantly, for planting the seed of education in me at a young age that encouraged me to aspire to a PhD. I wish to mention my childhood friend, Stephen Woodhouse, who gave me a job while I was writing and thus basically funded my research. The wage labour job was additionally an active laboratory for my thoughts. This process outlasted two romantic relationships, and it is with a pained heart that I extend my gratitude to the two women who accompanied me on two different legs of my journey. Without Florencia Benitez-Schaefer, I might not have ever started, and without LeeAnna Deringer, I might never have finished. It is with great melancholy that I look back and see that writing a dissertation was more consistent than my love life. It is my prayer that through the completion of this chapter of my life, I will learn to love with a more open heart. All my relations.

$Research paper thumbnail of Diffraction, transrational perspectives, and peace education: new possibilities$

Diffraction, transrational perspectives, and peace education: new possibilities

by Shawn Bryant and D T Archer

Journal of Peace Education, 2019

ABSTRACT This paper draws on the theoretical lens of diffraction to conceptualize a new approach ... more ABSTRACT This paper draws on the theoretical lens of diffraction to conceptualize a new approach to transrational peace education theory and praxis in the post-2016 posttruth political era and Industry 4.0 economic period. The paper reviews foundational concepts and approaches from key founders of the field – Paulo Freire and Betty Reardon – before turning to two contemporary peace education scholars – Wolfgang Dietrich and Hilary Cremin – to investigate the contributions of recent scholarship toward diverse diffractive possibilities for transrational peace education. In this sense, diffraction offers pluralistic views and transformative possibilities for transrational peace education in varied contexts. Transrational peace education builds upon peace education to integrate affective and aesthetic perspectives into peace education theory and praxis. Before concluding, we offer some theoretical implications and pedagogic responses for scholars seeking to work at diffractive transrational intersections. The contribution of the paper is toward theorizing new perspectives for transrational peace education theory and praxis in the 21st century.

Conflicting Peaces : Engaging with Diversities in Friction

by Florencia Benitez-Schaefer and Shawn Bryant

While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we a... more While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we approach the question — what happens when diversity also involves conflicting approaches to peace? This paper contains the authors’ reflections on the colloquium with the same title held in the On Diversity Conference 2012 in Vancouver, where the authors and participants explored peace itself as an expression of diversity. We argue that an attempt to answer this question requires a change in focus; if there is no longer a unifying peace, how can we engage with diversity in a plurality of conflicting peaces? Mainstream peace and conflict studies literature understands conflict as opposite to peace. Supported in contemporary critical research, we argue that the concept of peace rather than being perfect, absolute and pure is in fact impure, diverse, and conflictive. Hence, an understanding of peace that attempts to embrace diversity will necessarily be relational, include conflict and engag...

Transrational Peaces Extended to Economics

The exploration of transrational approaches to economics takes Wolfgang Dietrich’s theories of th... more The exploration of transrational approaches to economics takes Wolfgang Dietrich’s theories of the families of peaces and of transrational peaces and extends them in new directions. From this initial point of inspiration, the principles of transrational approaches to economics are outlined by explaining how economics generally manifests in each of the four constituent families of peaces. Examples are given to illustrate how some key concepts are inflected through the four quadrants of transrational peaces to create a dynamic synthesis of transrationality.

Fighting With No One: Reflections on Education, Aikido, and Peace

Conflicting Peaces

by Florencia Benitez-Schaefer and Shawn Bryant

The International Journal of Community Diversity, 2013

Some Reflections on Elicitive Approaches to Peace Studies in Higher Education

In Factis Pax, 2020

This paper reviews the state of the art of elicitive approaches to peace and conflict studies in ... more

Fighting With No One: Reflections on Education, Aikido, and Peace

IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology, 2019

This paper is a reflection on aikido as a tool for teaching about elicitive conflict transformati... more This paper is a reflection on aikido as a tool for teaching about elicitive conflict transformation and the larger field of peace and conflict studies. One of the central difficulties of teaching elicitive conflict transformation is that, as an adaptive and emergent method, it is non-prescriptive and therefore conventional didactics are inappropriate. The aim is to add to the existing corpus of literature on aikido and elicitve conflict transformation by combining the philosophical perspectives presented in this paper. The reflection builds on a comparison of Canadian First Nation's philosophy, the Japanese martial art aikido, and the Heideggerian term Verwindung as complementary philosophical approaches that can potentially deepen the understanding of elicitive conflict transformation. From the starting point of the Indigenous Canadian perspective from the Hesquiaht Nation, the term wiwikink' api' is introduced, which means 'fighting with no one. ' From there, aikido is presented as both a physical and spiritual practice that teaches non-aggression and balancing forces and it is compared to Verwindung. The three philosophical approaches have notable similarities that emphasize the core principles of elicitive conflict transformation: non-dualistic perception, self-awareness, and perpetual twisting. The final remarks draw parallels between these reflections and the state of the art of elicitive conflict transformation.

Finding Peace in the Tension between Homogeneity and Diversity: Plurality of Economic Systems

The International Journal of Organizational Diversity, 2013

The dominant institutional approach to peace is that the nation-state must create peace through u... more The dominant institutional approach to peace is that the nation-state must create peace through unity and homogeneity: one nation, one language, one law, and one national economy. The prospect of diversity implies a chaos that is abhorred, categorized, systematized, and neatly ordered. Yet this process of attempting to create peace through unity suppresses the natural forces of differentiation, and thus creates fertile ground for the escalation of conflicts. Alternatively, the prospect of unending variations seems to create the impossibility of finding any common ground. Peace, in this presentation, is relational, and as this paper assumes that the creation of value also depends on relations and agreements, it seems relevant to focus some light on the role of diversity in understandings of economics, and to question the assumptions of the discourses of economics and development. This discussion intends to suggest that through the acknowledgement of the existence of a plurality of economic systems, the possibility can be created to imagine a peace of dynamic interactions of diversity.

“Conflicting Peaces: Engaging with Diversities in Friction” F. Benitez-Shaefer, S. Bryant, C. Vallejo, y N. Taylor. International Journal of Community Diversity. Vol. 12 (2013).

by Catalina Vallejo Piedrahíta, Shawn Bryant, and Noah Taylor

While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we ... more While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we approach the question — what happens when diversity also involves conflicting approaches to peace? This paper contains the authors’ reflections on the colloquium with the same title held in the On Diversity Conference 2012 in Vancouver, where the authors and participants explored peace itself as an expression of diversity. We argue that an attempt to answer this question requires a change in focus; if there is no longer a unifying peace, how can we engage with diversity in a plurality of conflicting peaces? Mainstream peace and conflict studies literature understands conflict as opposite to peace. Supported in contemporary critical research, we argue that the concept of peace rather than being perfect, absolute and pure is in fact impure, diverse, and conflictive. Hence, an understanding of peace that attempts to embrace diversity will necessarily be relational, include conflict and engage with it, in contrast to silencing it or suppressing it. We argue that instead of being its opposite, conflict is in fact an essential component of peace. To elaborate on the argument, we deal with two of the possible interpretations of peace in history and culture: peace linked to security, understood as the eradication of threats from others and therefore recurring to ideals of perfection and homogeneity; and peace as an experience of harmony, highlighting mystical or musical harmony, which, far from being pure, emerges also out of conflicting tones. We conclude that both in traditions of mysticism and in security politics, diversities in friction lie at the core of experiencing and conceptualizing peace.

Theses by Shawn Bryant

Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces

Universitat Jaume I PhD thesis, 2016

Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical plurality, this dissertation investigates dif... more Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical plurality, this dissertation investigates different interpretations of what can be summed up as economics. The purpose is to investigate and explore the concept of transrational approaches to economics. This is done by using Wolfgang Dietrich’s Theory of the Many Peaces and applying it to economics. Dietrich lays out five families of peaces: energetic, moral, modern, postmodern, and transrational, the final being a dynamic synthesis of the first four. Each peace family has its own unique ontology and epistemology, which is in turn used to explain how economics manifests in each family. The main body of this dissertation is thus an ontological overview of economics in history and culture. Six common threads are compared in each family: time, justice, relationships, currency, environment, and peace. The insights from the four constituent families of peaces are gathered to offer postulates of transrational approaches to economics.

Peace Studies: Intra-Personal to Inter-National Theatre for Living as an Interdisciplinary Method for Teaching Transrational Approaches to Peace

University of Innsbruck MA thesis, 2011

A Blockade to Peace: The Failure of the US American Trade Blockade Against Cuba and Reasons for its Abrogation

University for Peace MA thesis, 2008

This research paper follows the evolution of US American policy towards Cuba from 1959 to present... more This research paper follows the evolution of US American policy towards Cuba from 1959 to present with a brief mention of historical trends. Throughout the text, the case is made that an embargo against Cuba is an erroneous policy to pursue. The general use and failure of sanctions is addressed and their efficacy questioned. Through the international support of UN General Assembly resolutions, it is shown that the embargo is unpopular. By comparison with the approaches of other countries, it is argued that the objectives of the USA’s policies could be better achieved through engagement with Cuba. The implications of the Helms-Burton Act brought forth and discussed. All through these topics, reasons are listed to justify the lifting of the trade blockade against Cuba.

Conflicting Peaces : Engaging with Diversities in Friction

While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we a... more While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we approach the question — what happens when diversity also involves conflicting approaches to peace? This paper contains the authors’ reflections on the colloquium with the same title held in the On Diversity Conference 2012 in Vancouver, where the authors and participants explored peace itself as an expression of diversity. We argue that an attempt to answer this question requires a change in focus; if there is no longer a unifying peace, how can we engage with diversity in a plurality of conflicting peaces? Mainstream peace and conflict studies literature understands conflict as opposite to peace. Supported in contemporary critical research, we argue that the concept of peace rather than being perfect, absolute and pure is in fact impure, diverse, and conflictive. Hence, an understanding of peace that attempts to embrace diversity will necessarily be relational, include conflict and engag...

Finding Peace in the Tension between Homogeneity and Diversity

The International Journal of Organizational Diversity, 2013

The dominant institutional approach to peace is that the nation-state must create peace through u... more The dominant institutional approach to peace is that the nation-state must create peace through unity and homogeneity: one nation, one language, one law, and one national economy. The prospect of diversity implies a chaos that is abhorred, categorized, systematized, and neatly ordered. Yet this process of attempting to create peace through unity suppresses the natural forces of differentiation, and thus creates fertile ground for the escalation of conflicts. Alternatively, the prospect of unending variations seems to create the impossibility of finding any common ground. Peace, in this presentation, is relational, and as this paper assumes that the creation of value also depends on relations and agreements, it seems relevant to focus some light on the role of diversity in understandings of economics, and to question the assumptions of the discourses of economics and development. This discussion intends to suggest that through the acknowledgement of the existence of a plurality of economic systems, the possibility can be created to imagine a peace of dynamic interactions of diversity.

Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces

Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical pluralit... more Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical plurality, this dissertation investigates different interpretations of what can be summed up as economics. The purpose is to investigate and explore the concept of transrational approaches to economics. This is done by using Wolfgang Dietrich's Theory of the Many Peaces and applying it to economics. Dietrich lays out five families of peaces: energetic, moral, modern, postmodern, and transrational, the final being a dynamic synthesis of the first four. Each peace family has its own unique ontology and epistemology, which is in turn used to explain how economics manifests in each family. The main body of this dissertation is thus an ontological overview of economics in history and culture. Six common threads are compared in each family: time, justice, relationships, currency, environment, and peace. The insights from the four constituent families of peaces are gathered to offer postulates of transrational approaches to economics. I would like to thank my supervisor, Wolfgang Dietrich, for guiding me through this process and providing encouraging feedback when I needed it the most. I carry deep gratitude for my mother, Margaret Bryant, who has supported me in innumerable ways, big and small, in getting to this stage of my life, and most importantly, for planting the seed of education in me at a young age that encouraged me to aspire to a PhD. I wish to mention my childhood friend, Stephen Woodhouse, who gave me a job while I was writing and thus basically funded my research. The wage labour job was additionally an active laboratory for my thoughts. This process outlasted two romantic relationships, and it is with a pained heart that I extend my gratitude to the two women who accompanied me on two different legs of my journey. Without Florencia Benitez-Schaefer, I might not have ever started, and without LeeAnna Deringer, I might never have finished. It is with great melancholy that I look back and see that writing a dissertation was more consistent than my love life. It is my prayer that through the completion of this chapter of my life, I will learn to love with a more open heart. All my relations.

$Research paper thumbnail of Diffraction, transrational perspectives, and peace education: new possibilities$

Diffraction, transrational perspectives, and peace education: new possibilities

by Shawn Bryant and D T Archer

Journal of Peace Education, 2019

ABSTRACT This paper draws on the theoretical lens of diffraction to conceptualize a new approach ... more ABSTRACT This paper draws on the theoretical lens of diffraction to conceptualize a new approach to transrational peace education theory and praxis in the post-2016 posttruth political era and Industry 4.0 economic period. The paper reviews foundational concepts and approaches from key founders of the field – Paulo Freire and Betty Reardon – before turning to two contemporary peace education scholars – Wolfgang Dietrich and Hilary Cremin – to investigate the contributions of recent scholarship toward diverse diffractive possibilities for transrational peace education. In this sense, diffraction offers pluralistic views and transformative possibilities for transrational peace education in varied contexts. Transrational peace education builds upon peace education to integrate affective and aesthetic perspectives into peace education theory and praxis. Before concluding, we offer some theoretical implications and pedagogic responses for scholars seeking to work at diffractive transrational intersections. The contribution of the paper is toward theorizing new perspectives for transrational peace education theory and praxis in the 21st century.

Conflicting Peaces : Engaging with Diversities in Friction

by Florencia Benitez-Schaefer and Shawn Bryant

While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we a... more While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we approach the question — what happens when diversity also involves conflicting approaches to peace? This paper contains the authors’ reflections on the colloquium with the same title held in the On Diversity Conference 2012 in Vancouver, where the authors and participants explored peace itself as an expression of diversity. We argue that an attempt to answer this question requires a change in focus; if there is no longer a unifying peace, how can we engage with diversity in a plurality of conflicting peaces? Mainstream peace and conflict studies literature understands conflict as opposite to peace. Supported in contemporary critical research, we argue that the concept of peace rather than being perfect, absolute and pure is in fact impure, diverse, and conflictive. Hence, an understanding of peace that attempts to embrace diversity will necessarily be relational, include conflict and engag...

Transrational Peaces Extended to Economics

The exploration of transrational approaches to economics takes Wolfgang Dietrich’s theories of th... more The exploration of transrational approaches to economics takes Wolfgang Dietrich’s theories of the families of peaces and of transrational peaces and extends them in new directions. From this initial point of inspiration, the principles of transrational approaches to economics are outlined by explaining how economics generally manifests in each of the four constituent families of peaces. Examples are given to illustrate how some key concepts are inflected through the four quadrants of transrational peaces to create a dynamic synthesis of transrationality.

Fighting With No One: Reflections on Education, Aikido, and Peace

Conflicting Peaces

by Florencia Benitez-Schaefer and Shawn Bryant

The International Journal of Community Diversity, 2013

Some Reflections on Elicitive Approaches to Peace Studies in Higher Education

In Factis Pax, 2020

This paper reviews the state of the art of elicitive approaches to peace and conflict studies in ... more

Fighting With No One: Reflections on Education, Aikido, and Peace

IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology, 2019

This paper is a reflection on aikido as a tool for teaching about elicitive conflict transformati... more This paper is a reflection on aikido as a tool for teaching about elicitive conflict transformation and the larger field of peace and conflict studies. One of the central difficulties of teaching elicitive conflict transformation is that, as an adaptive and emergent method, it is non-prescriptive and therefore conventional didactics are inappropriate. The aim is to add to the existing corpus of literature on aikido and elicitve conflict transformation by combining the philosophical perspectives presented in this paper. The reflection builds on a comparison of Canadian First Nation's philosophy, the Japanese martial art aikido, and the Heideggerian term Verwindung as complementary philosophical approaches that can potentially deepen the understanding of elicitive conflict transformation. From the starting point of the Indigenous Canadian perspective from the Hesquiaht Nation, the term wiwikink' api' is introduced, which means 'fighting with no one. ' From there, aikido is presented as both a physical and spiritual practice that teaches non-aggression and balancing forces and it is compared to Verwindung. The three philosophical approaches have notable similarities that emphasize the core principles of elicitive conflict transformation: non-dualistic perception, self-awareness, and perpetual twisting. The final remarks draw parallels between these reflections and the state of the art of elicitive conflict transformation.

Finding Peace in the Tension between Homogeneity and Diversity: Plurality of Economic Systems

The International Journal of Organizational Diversity, 2013

The dominant institutional approach to peace is that the nation-state must create peace through u... more The dominant institutional approach to peace is that the nation-state must create peace through unity and homogeneity: one nation, one language, one law, and one national economy. The prospect of diversity implies a chaos that is abhorred, categorized, systematized, and neatly ordered. Yet this process of attempting to create peace through unity suppresses the natural forces of differentiation, and thus creates fertile ground for the escalation of conflicts. Alternatively, the prospect of unending variations seems to create the impossibility of finding any common ground. Peace, in this presentation, is relational, and as this paper assumes that the creation of value also depends on relations and agreements, it seems relevant to focus some light on the role of diversity in understandings of economics, and to question the assumptions of the discourses of economics and development. This discussion intends to suggest that through the acknowledgement of the existence of a plurality of economic systems, the possibility can be created to imagine a peace of dynamic interactions of diversity.

“Conflicting Peaces: Engaging with Diversities in Friction” F. Benitez-Shaefer, S. Bryant, C. Vallejo, y N. Taylor. International Journal of Community Diversity. Vol. 12 (2013).

by Catalina Vallejo Piedrahíta, Shawn Bryant, and Noah Taylor

While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we ... more While the central question of diversity has often been how to live in peace with difference, we approach the question — what happens when diversity also involves conflicting approaches to peace? This paper contains the authors’ reflections on the colloquium with the same title held in the On Diversity Conference 2012 in Vancouver, where the authors and participants explored peace itself as an expression of diversity. We argue that an attempt to answer this question requires a change in focus; if there is no longer a unifying peace, how can we engage with diversity in a plurality of conflicting peaces? Mainstream peace and conflict studies literature understands conflict as opposite to peace. Supported in contemporary critical research, we argue that the concept of peace rather than being perfect, absolute and pure is in fact impure, diverse, and conflictive. Hence, an understanding of peace that attempts to embrace diversity will necessarily be relational, include conflict and engage with it, in contrast to silencing it or suppressing it. We argue that instead of being its opposite, conflict is in fact an essential component of peace. To elaborate on the argument, we deal with two of the possible interpretations of peace in history and culture: peace linked to security, understood as the eradication of threats from others and therefore recurring to ideals of perfection and homogeneity; and peace as an experience of harmony, highlighting mystical or musical harmony, which, far from being pure, emerges also out of conflicting tones. We conclude that both in traditions of mysticism and in security politics, diversities in friction lie at the core of experiencing and conceptualizing peace.

Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces

Universitat Jaume I PhD thesis, 2016

Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical plurality, this dissertation investigates dif... more Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical plurality, this dissertation investigates different interpretations of what can be summed up as economics. The purpose is to investigate and explore the concept of transrational approaches to economics. This is done by using Wolfgang Dietrich’s Theory of the Many Peaces and applying it to economics. Dietrich lays out five families of peaces: energetic, moral, modern, postmodern, and transrational, the final being a dynamic synthesis of the first four. Each peace family has its own unique ontology and epistemology, which is in turn used to explain how economics manifests in each family. The main body of this dissertation is thus an ontological overview of economics in history and culture. Six common threads are compared in each family: time, justice, relationships, currency, environment, and peace. The insights from the four constituent families of peaces are gathered to offer postulates of transrational approaches to economics.

Peace Studies: Intra-Personal to Inter-National Theatre for Living as an Interdisciplinary Method for Teaching Transrational Approaches to Peace

University of Innsbruck MA thesis, 2011

A Blockade to Peace: The Failure of the US American Trade Blockade Against Cuba and Reasons for its Abrogation

University for Peace MA thesis, 2008

This research paper follows the evolution of US American policy towards Cuba from 1959 to present... more This research paper follows the evolution of US American policy towards Cuba from 1959 to present with a brief mention of historical trends. Throughout the text, the case is made that an embargo against Cuba is an erroneous policy to pursue. The general use and failure of sanctions is addressed and their efficacy questioned. Through the international support of UN General Assembly resolutions, it is shown that the embargo is unpopular. By comparison with the approaches of other countries, it is argued that the objectives of the USA’s policies could be better achieved through engagement with Cuba. The implications of the Helms-Burton Act brought forth and discussed. All through these topics, reasons are listed to justify the lifting of the trade blockade against Cuba.