2009/01/01 by Isaac Saney
Social Sciences · #Cuban History and Society
paper · doi:10.1177/0094582x08329175
Cuba's internationalism has been treated as epiphenomenal to the overall trajectory of the Cuban Revolution rather than as a central component. The emphasis has been on the external rather than the internal dimensions: internationalist missions, whether military or medical, are often treated as divorced from the domestic sphere. Internationalist programs have always been dialectically linked to socialist development in Cuba, however, performing a critical function in consolidating socialist consciousness, especially during the Rectification Campaign of the 1980s, and the capacity to preserve the revolution during the economic crisis of the 1990s. The role of internationalism cannot be ignored or underestimated. It is a reservoir of socialist values and revolutionary fervor that was drawn on during the Special Period and an important factor in explaining the resilience of the revolution.