America's Cuba policy has long been an open joke in international circles. Seldom has a country pursued such a futile policy for so long while clearly recognizing its senselessness. It's probably the foremost example of how American domestic politics can take its foreign policy hostage, leaving everyone a loser.Today, President Barack Obama took bold action to put an end to this farce. Over half a century of a counterproductive sanctions and isolation policy is coming to an end.
But Cuba is only one of many examples of domestic politics rendering American foreign policy dysfunctional. Nor is it a unique case of how sanctions and isolation tend to be counterproductive.
Almost everything the president said about the failure of America's Cuba policy could be said of our policy on Iran (although Obama is thankfully also changing this policy).
This article was written by Trita Parsi & Ryan Costello for the blogs of Huffington Post on DEC. 18, 2014. Trita Parsi is the author ofTreacherous Alliance -- The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States(Yale University Press, 2007) and President of the National Iranian American Council, the largest Iranian American grassroots organization in the US. Ryan Costello joined the National Iranian American Council in April 2013 as a Policy Fellow. In this role, Ryan monitors legislation, conducts research and writing, and helps to coordinate advocacy efforts.
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