Cuba's soft power: An offensive strategy for defending the political sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba in the post-Cold War era

This paper bridges the gap between the literature on Soft Power, which has practically ignored small states, and the scholarship on the Republic of Cuba, which has directed primary attention to Cuba's Hard Power tactics. The analysis centers on Cuba's use of its Soft Power for safeguarding its political process from foreign intervention in the post-Cold War era. The theory of Soft Power was pioneered by political scientist Joseph S. Nye, Jr. and it referred to the ability of the state to influence by persuasion rather than coercion. The phrase was coined in 1990 and for two decades the overwhelming body of literature has relegated the use of Soft Power to the Great Powers. The moniker Great Powers is a relative term that categorizes those nations ranked highly as measured by their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).;This paper will validate that a nation ranked low on the GDP scale, thus classified as a small power, may effectively leverage its Soft Power for tangible benefits. Its investigation will center on Cuba and the two civilian programs that its government espouses as the paramount accomplishments of its Revolution and the cornerstone of its Soft Power strategy: health and education. An analysis of the application of these civilian programs in the post-Cold War era will substantiate the assumption that Soft Power is a bona fide power, thus capable of generating material gains even when exercised by small states and states with limited Hard Power. The paper is based on reports from the Cuban press and governmental agencies, speeches and interviews delivered by Cuban leaders, documents from the United States, and publications from international organizations.