Climate‐related disaster diplomacy:A US‐Cuban case study

This article traces the history of climate‐related cooperation between the US and Cuba as a possible example of disaster diplomacy. It identifies and analyses the areas of present interactions and conflicts, as well as potential diplomatically‐sanctioned cooperation between the two countries, with particular respect to the ENSO cycle (El Nino‐Southern Oscillation cycle, which incorporates El Nino and La Nina), and the extreme meteorological events that it spawns. Currently, US and Cuban government disaster collaboration is limited to the hurricane season and to monitoring and forecasting the development of storms in the tropical Atlantic. Based on careful examination of extensive empirical material, the article concludes that while disaster diplomacy may be successful in some regions, it has little chance of success in the US‐Cuban context in the absence of a rapprochement between the leaders of these two political systems.