Acknowledgments

Walter Russell Mead

Independent Task Force Report
U.S.–Cuban Relations in the 21st Century

January 1999

Council on Foreign Relations

 

Over the past six months, the Independent Task Force on U.S.–Cuban Relations in the 21st Century sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations has benefited from the assistance of many individuals. The success of this Task Force is due in large measure to the leadership provided by its co–chairs, Bernard W. Aronson and William D. Rogers. I am especially indebted to the members and observers of the Task Force, who offered their wisdom, intellect, and experience during the crafting of this report. In addition, the report and activities of the Task Force have benefited from comments provided by Professors Jorge Dom’nguez, Marifeli Pérez–Stable, María de los Angeles Torres, Carmelo Mesa– Lago, and Damian Fernández, as well as from former White House adviser for Cuba, Richard Nuccio. The Task Force also benefited from a series of meetings and discussions set up through the Council’s National Program and its partner institutes. These meetings were of great value in that they enabled the Task Force to take account of the views of people outside the Washington–New York circuit. The Task Force Report underwent many changes between the first draft and the final report. Many of these were due to the extremely helpful and sometimes quite pointed—suggestions and comments we received in the national meetings. I would like to thank all those who took the time to review the report and attend these meetings, and thank the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, the Carter Center in Atlanta, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University in Houston, and the Dante B. Fascell North–South Center of the University of Miami for hosting us so generously and graciously.

Special thanks are due also to those who enabled the Task Force to confer with senior Vatican officials. His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law, archbishop of Boston, arranged our participation in an audience with His Holiness Pope John Paul II and a meeting with His Excellency Most Reverend Jean Louis Tauran, Vatican secretary for relations with states. The generosity of Allen Adler made the visit possible.

At the Council on Foreign Relations we would like to acknowledge the support for the Task Force provided by Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Inter– American Studies and Director of the Latin America Program Kenneth R. Maxwell, Vice President for Corporate Affairs and Publisher David Kellogg, Director of Publishing Patricia Dorff, Director of Communications April Wahlestedt, Vice President and Director of the Council’s Washington Program Paula J. Dobriansky, and Assistant Director of the Council’s Washington Program Lorraine G. Snyder.

I also want to thank my colleagues on the Task Force staff without whom this report could not have been written. First and foremost, Senior Program Coordinator Julia Sweig provided hard work, intellectual leadership, and commitment without which both our process and our product would have been much poorer. Additionally, my research associate Rebecca O’Brien and intern Benjamin Skinner went far beyond the call of duty to provide the Task Force with seamless research and administrative support from New York. I am also grateful to Kaya Adams whose administrative support in Washington greatly facilitated our work.

I would like to express gratitude to the Arthur Ross Foundation and the Open Society Institute, whose contributions provided financial support for this Task Force.

 

Walter Russell Mead is Project Director at Council on Foreign Relations.