Cuban Internationalism and Contemporary Humanitarianism: History, Comparison and Perspectives

Abstract

The end of the Cold War has introduced important transformations including the practice of humanitarian aid that adjusted to the new world order. The general tendencies of the ‘contemporary humanitarianism’ are well discussed in the scientific literature. Since 1959, Cuba has developed its internationalism policy and has created a post-disaster brigade relief in the late 1990s. However, the subject has been little studied. The objective of this article is to analyze the Cuban humanitarian practices, values and framework in comparison with the contemporary tendency that appears since the end of the Cold War. Based on interviews led with Cuban cooperantes and a review of scientific literature, the study proposes that the Cuban post-relief internationalism is profoundly linked with the particular context in which it was created, but it is also functioning in a specific way in practice.