Central America & Caribbean

In a recent article, R.M. Schneiderman suggested that U.S. pro-democracy programs were responsible for prolonging the sentence of Alan Gross, an American currently being held in a Cuban prison. But given the Cuban regime’s history of biting any hand extended in friendship, now is not the time to cancel the programs or to make any other concessions.

Halting Iran's progress toward a bomb will require the United States to make credible promises and credible threats simultaneously -- an exceedingly difficult trick to pull off. For coercive diplomacy to work, Washington may need to put more of its cards on the table.

Graham Allison unduly credits Kennedy’s use of threats in resolving the Cuban missile crisis, argues James Nathan. Allison disagrees, pointing to the case of Iran, where only the prospect of an attack can convince the country to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Fifty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. Every president since John F. Kennedy has tried to learn from what happened back then. Today, it can help U.S. policymakers understand what to do -- and what not to do -- about Iran, North Korea, China, and presidential decision-making in general.