Direct diplomacy as an analysis prism of the EU-Cuba relationship

Authors

Abstract

The signature of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and Cuba in 2016 was a landmark in the international stage. This paper examines, from the institutional-historical viewpoint and the empirical method, the way in which the use of the EU’s structural diplomacy and of the political dialogue with Cuba created the New EU-Cuba Political Model, in 2016. By analyzing the data collected in interviews with EU bureaucrats, the paper shows how structural diplomacy and political dialogue on an equal basis have proven to be more efficient than traditional diplomacy and interference in the EU’s relation with Cuba. Likewise, it shows that direct diplomacy can be replicated in the relationship of the EU with Latin America, in the framework of the Brexit.

Keywords:

Direct or Structural Diplomacy, New EU-Cuba Political Model, Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement EU-Cuba, Brexit

Author Biography

Alexis Berg-Rodríguez, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Doctor en Ciencias Políticas y de la Administración y las Relaciones Internacionales. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2018. Investigador visitante en el Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales en Madrid, y Profesor – Investigador en la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, España