Getting to Normal: A Legal Pathway for U.S.-Cuba Policy Reform
Cohosted with the Center for International Policy
The CSIS Americas Program and the Center for International Policy will host a half-day conference that will explore what normal relations between the United States and Cuba could look like, while discussing a legal roadmap for getting there. The purpose of the event is not to discuss whether the United States should normalize its relations with Cuba. Instead, the event will explore the process in its legal, practical, and diplomatic aspects, in the event that a U.S. president decides to pursue such a relationship.
The event will feature a morning keynote address by Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who will discuss his recent trip to Cuba and the outlook for the bilateral relationship, and a luncheon keynote address by Ambassador Tom Pickering, who will discuss the role of practical diplomacy in normalizing relations with countries subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
Washington, D.C. attorney Robert Muse will describe the legal capability of a U.S. president to normalize relations with Cuba, and then moderate a discussion of the various elements of normalized U.S.-Cuba relations.
Speakers include:
Mark Feldman, former Deputy and acting Legal Adviser at the Department of State
Gustavo Arnavat, former U.S. Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank and Senior Adviser at CSIS
Jake Colvin, Vice President of the National Foreign Trade Council
Prof. Christine Haight Farley, American University's Washington College of Law
Matthew Aho, Akerman, LLC; and Dan Whittle, Environmental Defense Fund