Ethnic Interest Groups in Us Foreign Policy-making ― A Cuban-american Story of Success and Failure

This book is the first study to offer a comprehensive theoretical and empirically tested answer to the question of ethnic interest group influence. It presents the argument that such groups exert influence through three different types of power - material, identity, and alignment power. Each type of power is operationalized by a variety of indicators, allowing for clear-cut answers as to what makes an ethnic interest group successful - or not. The group in focus in this case study is the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), widely assumed to be one of the most influential ethnic interest groups in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. The analysis comprises a structured-focused comparison of how CANF influenced the outcome of two different legislatives debates that directly affected US policy towards Cuba, and why it failed to do so in a third instance. Ethnic Groups in US Foreign Policy-Making not only provides an innovative approach to the study of these interest groups, but also benefits from strong political relevance, as ethnic interest groups have provoked considerable controversy in the public and among policy makers in recent years.

Henriette M. Rytz is Research Associate in the Americas Research Division of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin, Germany.