Cuba Scholar Applauds Easing of Relations Between Historic Enemies

Late last year Margaret Crahan (GSAS’67) attended a meeting in Havana of Cuba scholars from all over the world. The sense of the gathering: Normalization of relations between the U.S. and its communist neighbor wasn’t likely anytime soon. The very next day, news broke that the Cold War enemies were moving to restore full diplomatic relations. Crahan, a senior research scholar at Columbia’s Institute of Latin American Studies and director of its Cuba program, puts the surprising turn of events in perspective.