ABSTRACT
In the existing literature on ethnic interest groups and foreign policy there is little consensus as to how effective such groups have been in exerting influence upon policymakers or how important a role they ought to play.1 This chapter examines the involvement of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) and other Cuban-American lobby groups in policymaking, focusing on the 1980s and 1990s. It analyzes the ways in which these groups influenced policy, considering whether the Cuban-American case during this period provides support for critics such as Samuel Huntington and former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, who argued in 1997 that ethnic groups had indeed “acquired an excessive influence” over US foreign policy.2 It will argue that CANF began to complicate the formation of foreign policy only a few short years after Reagan officials encouraged conservative Cuban-Americans to create the organization. Furthermore, contrary to predictions in the 1980s, CANF reached new heights of influence under the less ideologically-motivated George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.3
