ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the perspective of an American strategist, and focuses on the ways military instruments possessed by or located in Cuba bear on the interests of the United States. It looks at common ground between the United States and Cuba but does so from the starting point of US interests. The chapter addresses several sets of concerns, by US lights: Cuban actions in supporting or fighting alongside groups or governments the United States opposes, first within and then beyond Latin America; and more specific aspects of bilateral relations, like narcotics or migration, that have or might have security implications. Two eminently political sets of issues, narcotics and migration, have security implications. In conceiving of future US security policy toward Cuba in the new administration and beyond, two themes stand out. These are: explicitness; and Cuban-Soviet relations. The Cuban-Soviet relationship is fundamental to the question of security in relations between the United States and Cuba.
