ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some issues directly linked to the question of values and interests that underlie the conflict between Cuba and the United States, characterizing both approaches. It considers the limitations that these same values and interests impose on the prospects for change. Cuba has a political process defined by its own values and Interests and corresponding to its history and political system, which converge with those of other nations within the international system. A very important aspect of Cuba's policy toward the Third World in the wider context of its foreign policy is Cuba's rejection of the notion of "spheres of influence." Cuba's foreign policy has attained in the 1980s a better fit within the consensus of the international community. The Cuban issue shifted within US policy to the extent that it was explicitly identified as a test case of its Latin American policy.
