tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/embassy-1974/articlesEmbassy – The Conversation2021-09-30T12:30:15Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1672752021-09-30T12:30:15Z2021-09-30T12:30:15ZHavana syndrome fits the pattern of psychosomatic illness – but that doesn’t mean symptoms aren’t real<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423680/original/file-20210928-19356-189xxis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C2561%2C1501&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In late 2016, people working and living in the embassy district of Havana, including at the U.S. Embassy seen here, began hearing strange sounds before getting sick. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IntelligenceEnergyWaveAttacks/833076ed9b924991b0f1c8bfdd10ab9a/photo?Query=havana%20AND%20syndrome&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=5&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Desmond Boylan</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the ailments collectively dubbed “Havana syndrome” suffered by U.S. diplomats and intelligence operatives were <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/01/1160457170/u-s-intelligence-foreign-rivals-didnt-cause-havana-syndrome">“highly unlikely” to have been caused by a foreign government</a>, according to news organizations briefed by intelligence officials familiar with the seven-agency investigation.</p>
<p>Like most people, I first heard about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40746-9">Havana syndrome</a> in the summer of 2017. Cuba was allegedly attacking employees of the U.S. Embassy in Havana in their homes and hotel rooms <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-ap-top-news-barack-obama-politics-cuba-51828908c6c84d78a29e833d0aae10aa">using a mysterious weapon</a>. The victims reported a variety of symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, hearing loss, fatigue, mental fog and difficulty concentrating after hearing an eerie sound.</p>
<p>Over the next year and a half, many theories were put forward regarding the symptoms and how a weapon may have caused them. Despite the lack of hard evidence, many experts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.1742">suggested</a> that a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/lio2.231">weapon</a> of some sort <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/25889">was causing</a> the symptoms.</p>
<p>I am an <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/providers/robert-baloh">emeritus professor of neurology</a> who studies the inner ear, and my clinical focus is on dizziness and hearing loss. When news of these events broke, I was baffled. But after reading descriptions of the patients’ symptoms and test results, I began to doubt that some mysterious weapon was the cause.</p>
<p>I have seen patients with the same symptoms as the embassy employees on a regular basis in my Dizziness Clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles. Most have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59181-6">psychosomatic symptoms</a> – meaning the symptoms are real but arise from stress or emotional causes, not external ones. With a little reassurance and some treatments to lessen their symptoms, they get better.</p>
<p>The available data on Havana syndrome matches closely with mass psychogenic illness – more commonly known as mass hysteria. So what is really happening with so–called Havana syndrome?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423675/original/file-20210928-18-omvetv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drawing of a brain set above sound waves." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423675/original/file-20210928-18-omvetv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423675/original/file-20210928-18-omvetv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423675/original/file-20210928-18-omvetv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423675/original/file-20210928-18-omvetv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423675/original/file-20210928-18-omvetv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423675/original/file-20210928-18-omvetv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423675/original/file-20210928-18-omvetv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Embassy employees in Cuba and other countries reported hearing loud noises and then experiencing cognitive and hearing issues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/brain-and-brain-waves-in-epilepsy-royalty-free-illustration/956351618?adppopup=true">Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A mysterious illness</h2>
<p>In late December 2016, an otherwise healthy undercover agent in his 30s arrived at the clinic of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba complaining of headaches, difficulty hearing and acute pain in his ear. The symptoms themselves were not alarming, but the agent reported that they developed after he heard “a beam of sound” that “<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/diplomats-in-cuba">seemed to have been directed at his home</a>.”</p>
<p>As word of the presumed attack spread, other people in the embassy community reported similar experiences. A former CIA officer who was in Cuba at the time later noted that the first patient “was lobbying, if not coercing, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/the-real-story-behind-the-havana-embassy-mystery">people to report symptoms</a> and to connect the dots.”</p>
<p>Patients from the U.S. Embassy were first sent to ear, nose and throat doctors at the University of Miami and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40746-9">then to brain specialists in Philadelphia</a>. Physicians examined the embassy patients using a range of tests to measure hearing, balance and cognition. They also took MRIs of the patients’ brains. In the 21 patients examined, 15 to 18 experienced sleep disturbances and headaches as well as cognitive, auditory, balance and visual dysfunction. Despite these symptoms, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.1742">brain MRIs and hearing tests were normal</a>.</p>
<p>A flurry of <a href="https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=77128ec3-11f6-4d5f-a368-739dea563768">articles</a> appeared <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/world/americas/cuba-embassy-attacks.html">in the media</a>, many <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/doctors-find-neurological-damage-to-americans-who-served-in-cuba/2018/02/14/83c639a2-11de-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html">accepting the notion of an attack</a>. </p>
<p>From Cuba, Havana syndrome began to spread around the globe to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/what-is-havana-syndrome-symptoms-cia-b1923886.html">embassies in China</a>, <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/08/23/what-is-havana-syndrome-the-puzzling-malady-plaguing-western-diplomats">Russia</a>, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-blamed-havana-syndrome-attack-us-embassy-staff-berlin-0ldtkx7x3">Germany</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/vienna-is-the-new-havana-syndrome-hotspot">Austria</a>, and even to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/21/what-is-havana-syndrome-us-cuba-cia-burns/">streets of Washington</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423676/original/file-20210928-20-15d0z9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A brown cricket on gravel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423676/original/file-20210928-20-15d0z9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423676/original/file-20210928-20-15d0z9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423676/original/file-20210928-20-15d0z9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423676/original/file-20210928-20-15d0z9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423676/original/file-20210928-20-15d0z9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423676/original/file-20210928-20-15d0z9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423676/original/file-20210928-20-15d0z9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Associated Press released a recording of the sound in Cuba, and biologists identified it as the call of a species of Cuban cricket.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gails_pictures/25069138829/in/photolist-ac55u-JzvyfL-EBxwHZ-brv4gF-EcgTzx-7m2LJM-k4HWp4">Gail Hampshire/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A sonic or microwave weapon?</h2>
<p>Initially, many experts and some of the physicians suggested that some sort of sonic weapon was to blame. The Miami team’s study in 2018 reported that 19 patients had dizziness caused by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/lio2.231">damage to the inner ear from some type of sonic weapon</a>. </p>
<p>This hypothesis has for the most part been discredited due to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-havana-attacks-20180612-story.html">flaws</a> in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2018.10.001">studies</a>, the fact there is no evidence that any <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/science/cuba-sonic-weapon.html">sonic weapon could selectively damage the brain and nothing else</a>, and because biologists identified the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cuba-north-america-ap-top-news-havana-latin-america-b57d889a1ebc425fa6d01002726d912e">sounds in recordings of the supposed weapon</a> to be a <a href="https://carlzimmer.com/the-sounds-that-haunted-u-s-diplomats-in-cuba-lovelorn-crickets-scientists-say/">Cuban species of cricket</a>.</p>
<p>Some people have also proposed an alternative idea: a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/science/sonic-attack-cuba-microwave.html">microwave radiation weapon</a>.</p>
<p>This hypothesis gained credibility when in December 2020, the National Academy of Science released a report concluding that “pulsed radiofrequency energy” was a <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/25889">likely cause for symptoms in at least some of the patients</a>. </p>
<p>If someone is exposed to high energy microwaves, they may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.1962.17.4.689">sometimes briefly hear sounds</a>. There is no actual sound, but in what is called the Frey effect, neurons in a person’s ear or brain are directly stimulated by microwaves and the person may “hear” a noise. These effects, though, are nothing like the sounds the victims described, and the simple fact that the sounds were recorded by several victims eliminates microwaves as the source. While <a href="https://theconversation.com/directed-energy-weapons-shoot-painful-but-non-lethal-beams-are-similar-weapons-behind-the-havana-syndrome-167318">directed energy weapons do exist</a>, none that I know of could explain the symptoms or sounds reported by the embassy patients.</p>
<p>Despite all these stories and theories, there is a problem: No physician has found a medical cause for the symptoms. And after more than five years of extensive searching, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-cuba-havana-physics-4316989d278ae353c42ef78033d9b2a5">no evidence of a weapon has been found</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423679/original/file-20210928-24-1exv8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting of people carrying other people as they dance uncontrollably." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423679/original/file-20210928-24-1exv8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423679/original/file-20210928-24-1exv8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423679/original/file-20210928-24-1exv8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423679/original/file-20210928-24-1exv8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423679/original/file-20210928-24-1exv8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423679/original/file-20210928-24-1exv8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423679/original/file-20210928-24-1exv8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mass psychogenic illness – more commonly known as mass hysteria – is a well-documented phenomenon throughout history, as seen in this painting of an outbreak of dancing mania in the Middle Ages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dance_at_Molenbeek.jpg#/media/File:Dance_at_Molenbeek.jpg">Pieter Brueghel the Younger/WikimediaCommons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mass psychogenic illness</h2>
<p>Mass psychogenic illness is a condition whereby people in a group feel sick because they think they have been exposed to something dangerous – even though there has been no actual exposure. For example, as telephones became widely available at the turn of the 20th century, numerous telephone operators became sick with concussion-like symptoms attributed to “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009403038002130">acoustic shock</a>.” But despite decades of reports, no research has ever <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009403038002130">confirmed the existence of acoustic shock</a>.</p>
<p>I believe it is much more likely that mass psychogenic illness – not an energy weapon – is behind Havana syndrome.</p>
<p>Mass psychogenic illness typically begins in a stressful environment. Sometimes it <a href="https://www.aafp.org/afp/2000/1215/p2649.html">starts when an individual with an unrelated illness</a> believes something mysterious caused their symptoms. This person then spreads the idea to the people around them and even to other groups, and it is often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.2012.120053">amplified by overzealous health workers and the mass media</a>. Well-documented cases of mass psychogenic illness – like the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS0140-6736%2809%2960386-X">dancing plagues</a> of the Middle Ages – have occurred for centuries and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fbrain%2Fawab316">continue to occur on a regular basis around the world</a>. The symptoms are real, the result of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59181-6">changes in brain connections and chemistry</a>. They can also last for years.</p>
<p>The story of Havana syndrome looks to me like a textbook case of mass psychogenic illness. It started from a single undercover agent in Cuba – a person in what I imagine is a very stressful situation. This person had real symptoms, but blamed them on something mysterious – the strange sound he heard. He then told his colleagues at the embassy, and the idea spread. With the help of the media and medical community, the idea solidified and spread around the world. It checks all the boxes. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the December 2020 National Academy of Science report concluded that mass psychogenic illness was a reasonable explanation for the patients’ symptoms, particularly the chronic symptoms, but that it <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/25889">lacked “patient-level data” to make such a diagnosis</a>. </p>
<p>The Cuban government itself has been investigating the supposed attacks over the years as well. The most detailed report, released on Sept. 13, 2021, concludes that there is no evidence of directed energy weapons and says that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-cuba-havana-physics-4316989d278ae353c42ef78033d9b2a5">psychological causes are the only ones that cannot be dismissed</a>.</p>
<p>While not as sensational as the idea of a new secret weapon, mass psychogenic illness has historical precedents and can explain the wide variety of symptoms, lack of brain or ear damage and the subsequent spread around the world. </p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to include news about intelligence agencies’ findings about Havana syndrome.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Baloh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Havana syndrome has spread to government officials around the world and stumped doctors for years. Despite news of mysterious attacks, evidence suggests mass psychogenic illness may be the true cause.Robert Baloh, Professor of Neurology, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1297582020-01-12T13:36:32Z2020-01-12T13:36:32ZCanada’s non-diplomacy puts Canadians at risk in an unstable Middle East<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309536/original/file-20200111-97183-nq1520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C4950%2C3482&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pauses as he speaks during a news conference in Ottawa on Jan. 11. Trudeau says Iran must take full responsibility for mistakenly shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner, killing all 176 civilians on board. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canada is caught in a mess of its own diplomatic making following the recent escalation in conflict between the United States and Iran. This escalation seemed to contribute to the downing <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-jetliner-unintentionally-shot-down-1.5423608">by Iran</a> on its own soil of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6396760/canadians-killed-iran-crash/">with 57 Canadians aboard</a>.</p>
<p>This is not just a matter of Canada being caught in an international conflagration involving the Trump administration after its targeted killing of Iranian Maj.-Gen. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-blast-soleimani/irans-soleimani-and-iraqs-muhandis-killed-in-air-strike-militia-spokesman-idUSKBN1Z201C">Qassem Soleimani</a>. </p>
<p>It is also the result of an unnecessarily aggressive posture of Canada’s own when, in 2012, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government closed its embassy in Tehran and expelled Iranian officials on short notice from Canada. </p>
<h2>The context of war and Flight PS752</h2>
<p>Flight PS752, with its stop in Kyiv, was popular with Iranians flying to Canada because there are no direct links between the two countries. It is also a cheap alternative route in Iran, which is impoverished by sanctions, conflict and corruption.</p>
<p>For months, the U.S. and Iran had been <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/monitors-houthis-saudi-aramco-attacks-report-200109062732396.html">antagonizing one another across</a> the Middle East. These regional rivals have been particularly aggressive since the U.S. withdrew in 2018 from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) treaty, brokered by Barack Obama’s administration, and imposed new sanctions on Iran.</p>
<p>The JCPOA had been designed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear/iran-is-complying-with-nuclear-deal-restrictions-iaea-report-idUSKCN1LF1KR">had been upholding</a> its part in the agreement.</p>
<p>This tension escalated to dramatic new heights when the U.S. carried out the unprecedented act of openly assassinating another country’s top official. A fate <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/14/13577464/obama-farewell-speech-torture-drones-nsa-surveillance-trump">typically reserved</a> for non-state players in the post 9/11 era, it was carried out at Baghdad’s international airport. Ten people died in the drone attack, including Iraqi factional commander <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/03/abu-mahdi-al-muhandis-iraq-iran-militias-suleimani">Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis</a>. This has effectively demolished existing international norms for conduct.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309538/original/file-20200111-97149-1x21v4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309538/original/file-20200111-97149-1x21v4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309538/original/file-20200111-97149-1x21v4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309538/original/file-20200111-97149-1x21v4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309538/original/file-20200111-97149-1x21v4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309538/original/file-20200111-97149-1x21v4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309538/original/file-20200111-97149-1x21v4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pedestrians walk past banners of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in Iraq in a U.S. drone attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hillary Mann Leverett, a former White House National Security official, told <em>Al Jazeera</em> the killing of Soleimani amounted to a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/iraq-3-katyusha-rockets-fired-baghdad-airport-200102232817666.html">“declaration of war.”</a> </p>
<h2>Iran retaliated</h2>
<p>The killing led directly to Iran saying it would no longer honour the JCPOA and launching <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/08/politics/trump-iran-retaliation-missile-attacks/index.html">missile attacks</a> on American military bases in Iraq three days later, with no casualties. It may not be surprising in such a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-iran-crash-panic-bad-training-may-led-missile-attack-2020-1">tense environment</a> if the Iranian military fired missiles at an airliner taking off from its own airport, fearing an imminent U.S. strike. Iran, however, should likely have grounded all flights that day, too.</p>
<p>Iran first denied it had shot down the plane, but after Iranian social media users ran rampant with speculation that Iranian missiles were responsible, the government admitted to its actions. Protesters have since taken to the streets against the regime.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1216005829641543689"}"></div></p>
<p>Canada’s 2012 decision to cut diplomatic ties with Iran has played a role affecting the tragic loss of Canadian citizens.</p>
<p>It was a decision based heavily on internal political calculations. It has been at great cost to Canada’s ability to have a presence and institutional contacts in Iran to understand the politics and society there — and provide services to Canadians. </p>
<p>This lack of basic intelligence on the ground has hobbled Canada at the worst possible time. Because of these poor relations, Canada also has only limited access to participate in the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/iran-plane-crash-canada-access-investigation-1.5421352">investigation of the downed flight</a>.</p>
<h2>Trudeau primarily blamed Iran</h2>
<p>Canada justified cutting ties in 2012 by saying <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-closes-embassy-in-iran-expels-iranian-diplomats-1.1166509">Iran was</a> the world’s “most significant threat to global peace and security.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seemed <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6398641/iran-plane-crash-update-trudeau/?utm_source=notification/">to toe that line in his Jan. 11 news conference</a>, laying blame primarily on Iran. </p>
<p>Trudeau has largely been an adherent of his predecessor’s Middle East policy. However, diplomatic representation would significantly help in the aftermath of the downing of Flight PS752. What is more, countless Iranians are looking abroad for support for their own cause of reform and liberalization, and instead have been subjected to sanctions that harm innocent citizens most.</p>
<p>Diplomatic ties offer opportunities for dialogue essential to avoid conflict and resolve disputes. Further, Canadians live, travel and do business around the world, and a large community of Canadians of Iranian descent <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canadian-woman-held-in-iran-after-husband-died-now-home-safe-freeland-1.4634767">need access</a> to Canadian diplomatic representation for their own safety and well-being.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309537/original/file-20200111-97171-1h8tmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309537/original/file-20200111-97171-1h8tmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309537/original/file-20200111-97171-1h8tmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309537/original/file-20200111-97171-1h8tmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309537/original/file-20200111-97171-1h8tmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309537/original/file-20200111-97171-1h8tmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309537/original/file-20200111-97171-1h8tmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mourners in Edmonton place candles and photographs during a vigil for those who were among the 176 people who were killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 crashed after takeoff near Tehran, Iran.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Codie McLachlan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That is why Canada has representation with other states around the world, even some of the most notorious. Indeed, one of Trudeau’s campaign promises <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-i-ll-end-isis-combat-mission-restore-relations-with-iran-1.3124949">in 2015</a> was to restore diplomatic relations with Iran. </p>
<p>Though the Harper government added legislation that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/11926422.2018.1564683">made it difficult</a> to reverse the 2012 decision, it can be done with political will.</p>
<h2>Canadians need an embassy in Iran</h2>
<p>No one yet knows what the fallout will be from the escalation between the U.S. and Iran. The Middle East is now even more unsafe and unstable. Iran will feel compelled to respond after so egregious an attack on its officials, to save face and show attacks on its leadership come with a cost. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/war-iraqis-revive-protests-iran-tension-200110201417699.html">Iraq is in greater upheaval</a>. And no one can determine yet what the global impact will be after the U.S. so dramatically smashed existing norms of statecraft.</p>
<p>More than ever, Canada needs a presence to be able to deal on its own with the aftermath of these terrible events, with Canadian interests front and centre. As the tragedy of Flight PS752 has made explicit, Canada only hurts itself and Canadians without it. </p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Wildeman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The downing of Flight PS752 isn’t just the result of Canada being caught in U.S.-Iran crossfire. It’s also the result of an unnecessarily aggressive posture of Canada’s own against Iran in 2012.Jeremy Wildeman, Visiting Research Fellow, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1085912019-02-04T11:39:10Z2019-02-04T11:39:10ZWhy Jamal Khashoggi’s murder took place in a consulate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256714/original/file-20190131-108334-f2hxi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a 2014 press conference in Bahrain.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP/Hasan Jamali</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/10/alleged-saudi-hit-squad-linked-to-jamal-khashoggi-disappearance">an alleged Saudi “hit squad”</a> whose members have close ties to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. </p>
<p>I’m a scholar of culture, politics, law and socio-economics who studies what I call “<a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=28732">global borderlands</a>.” These are semi-autonomous places that are controlled by foreigners and where the laws that govern socioeconomic life differ from those that are outside its walls. </p>
<p>I believe that despite massive amounts of press attention, two important and related elements of Khashoggi’s murder remain underexamined.</p>
<p>First is the fact that his murder allegedly took place within a <a href="https://treaties.un.org/pages/viewdetails.aspx?src=treaty&mtdsg_no=iii-3&chapter=3&lang=en">consulate or embassy, a global borderland</a>. </p>
<p>Second is the fact that his alleged murderers included people traveling on diplomatic passports, who <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-10/diplomatic-immunity-clouds-jamal-khashoggi-case/10356566">were not entirely subject to the laws of the state – Turkey – they were visiting</a>.</p>
<p>These elements mean trying and punishing the alleged suspects in the Turkish, or even international, system is complicated – if not improbable.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256719/original/file-20190131-124043-1wth0oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256719/original/file-20190131-124043-1wth0oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256719/original/file-20190131-124043-1wth0oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256719/original/file-20190131-124043-1wth0oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256719/original/file-20190131-124043-1wth0oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256719/original/file-20190131-124043-1wth0oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256719/original/file-20190131-124043-1wth0oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256719/original/file-20190131-124043-1wth0oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A security guard’s hand at the entrance to Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Oct. 12, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Turkey-Saudi-Arabia-Missing-Writer/dcfdd79ee14d46bfbeaef26f8b719efb/7/0">AP/Petros Giannakouris</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Long history of diplomatic immunity</h2>
<p>Diplomacy is the art of foreign relations. It has both a public and private face. </p>
<p>Official diplomats are representatives of the country that sends them to other countries, and they enjoy “diplomatic immunity,” which means they are exempt from the laws of the host country in which they are visiting.</p>
<p>This includes <a href="http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf">immunity</a> from any crime they commit in the host country. It also includes immunity from any civil or administrative laws, with a few key exceptions. </p>
<p>The practice of diplomats being granted immunity has a long history. Cultural anthropologist Jack Weatherford argues in his book, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/187628/genghis-khan-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world-by-jack-weatherford/9780609809648/">Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World</a>,” that Khan – in the 13th century – established diplomatic immunity for envoys and ambassadors throughout this empire, even for those from countries with which he was at war. </p>
<p>Historian Jeremy Black starts his book, “<a href="http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781861898319&m=205&dc=856">A History of Diplomacy,”</a> with the story of how the execution by Persian leader Muhammad II of Khan’s diplomatic envoy sparked a war. </p>
<p>Modern diplomatic privileges are outlined in the <a href="http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf">1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations</a>; <a href="https://treaties.un.org/pages/viewdetails.aspx?src=treaty&mtdsg_no=iii-3&chapter=3&lang=en">192 countries</a> follow its guidelines. </p>
<p>Diplomatic immunity also extends to <a href="http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf">the physical places</a> of a diplomatic mission – the embassy or consulate as well as the residence of the head of the mission. </p>
<p>These places are “inviolable,” or unable to be entered by officials from the host country without explicit consent by officials from the sending country. </p>
<p>Documents and diplomatic bags – and the courier who is traveling with them – are also not subject to search from officials of the host country.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256721/original/file-20190131-109820-t1ueag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256721/original/file-20190131-109820-t1ueag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256721/original/file-20190131-109820-t1ueag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256721/original/file-20190131-109820-t1ueag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256721/original/file-20190131-109820-t1ueag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256721/original/file-20190131-109820-t1ueag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256721/original/file-20190131-109820-t1ueag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256721/original/file-20190131-109820-t1ueag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turkish security barriers block the road to Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Oct. 28, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Turkey-Saudi-Arabia-Writer-Killed/204aa157e64048ff80547fe1dd910bd7/211/0">AP/Lefteris Pitarakis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Murder in a consulate</h2>
<p>A consulate is a symbol of the foreign state. It is governed by separate laws than those of the host state. Officials from the host state cannot enter a consulate property without permission. </p>
<p>These three facts help explain why Khashoggi was allegedly lured to and killed inside an embassy. There would be no fear about getting caught. Khashoggi could be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/world/europe/turkey-saudi-khashoggi-dismember.html">killed, beheaded and dismembered</a> with impunity. </p>
<p>Turkish authorities couldn’t enter the embassy without permission from Saudi Arabia. When Turkish officials were finally allowed to enter the consulate, it was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45812399">after cleaners already entered</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkey-releases-passport-scans-of-men-it-says-were-involved-in-journalists-killing/2018/10/16/f425892e-d163-11e8-83d6-291fcead2ab1_story.html?utm_term=.24c272adf71a">Areas of the consulate were also reportedly repainted</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/16/turkish-official-says-police-found-evidence-in-saudi-consulate-that-jamal-khashoggi-was-killed-there-ap.html">Turkish officials were told certain areas of the consulate were off-limits</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/16/turkish-official-says-police-found-evidence-in-saudi-consulate-that-jamal-khashoggi-was-killed-there-ap.html">However, the cleaners may not have destroyed all the evidence</a>. </p>
<p>Turkish officials did search the nearby residence of the consul, which was where some of the vehicles that left the consulate drove to after Khashoggi was allegedly already killed. </p>
<p>Turkish officials also searched areas in the Belgrad forest and farmland in Yalova for Khashoggi’s remains because Saudi consulate vehicles were spotted heading that way <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45812399">on the day he was killed</a>. </p>
<h2>No prosecution</h2>
<p>Members of the Saudi team alleged to have committed the murder arrived shortly before, and left Istanbul almost immediately after, Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Most members of the group traveled on regular passports, their bags were put through airport security and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-king-salman-khashoggi.html">some were searched by hand</a>. </p>
<p>But at least one member of the seven people returning to Saudi Arabia was carrying a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkey-releases-passport-scans-of-men-it-says-were-involved-in-journalists-killing/2018/10/16/f425892e-d163-11e8-83d6-291fcead2ab1_story.html?utm_term=.24c272adf71a">diplomatic passport, while two carried “special” government passports</a>, indicating official government and diplomatic status. </p>
<p>This status is why Hulusi Akar, Turkey’s defense minister, has stated that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-king-salman-khashoggi.html">Khashoggi’s remains may have been carried</a> out of the country in these bags – they were not subject to search.</p>
<p>The diplomatic immunity of some members of the alleged hit squad allowed them to leave quickly, not be subject to search and not be prosecuted by the Turkish criminal justice system. </p>
<p>There is one way they could be prosecuted: if Saudi Arabia <a href="http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf">waived the diplomatic agent’s immunity</a> and allowed them to be tried in Turkey. There is no sign that Saudi Arabia will do this. </p>
<p>Other members of the group, traveling on regular – not diplomatic – passports, also left quickly. Because they are now outside of Turkey, the Turkish government has been unable to bring any of these alleged suspects before their court system. Turkey requested extradition of these people, but <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46501472">Saudi Arabia refused to hand them over</a>.</p>
<p>The location of Khashoggi’s murder at a consulate appears purposeful, allowing the alleged murderers the time and inviolable space needed to kill him without any fear of interruption or interference from Turkish authorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Reyes receives or has previously received funding from the American Sociological Association, National Science Foundation, and Institute of International Education</span></em></p>Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder happened at a consulate, a space not subject to the laws of the host country, Turkey. That means the alleged murderers did not fear interference by local authorities.Victoria Reyes, Assistant Professor, University of California, RiversideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/965902018-05-15T10:27:02Z2018-05-15T10:27:02ZUS embassy in Jerusalem opens amid violence: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218905/original/file-20180514-100713-1xnp661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinian protesters evacuate a wounded youth in the Gaza Strip.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Adel Hana</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On May 14, the day the U.S. embassy in Israel moved to Jerusalem, at least 55 Palestinians <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/world/middleeast/gaza-protests-palestinians-us-embassy.html">were killed and 2,700 wounded</a> by Israeli soldiers amid protest at Israel’s border, according to The New York Times.</p>
<p>What began as Palestinian protests against economic sanctions in Gaza months ago now also includes a response to the embassy move. President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/06/politics/president-donald-trump-jerusalem/index.html">announced the move</a> back in December 2017, when he recognized Jerusalem as the “true capital” of Israel.</p>
<p>Four pieces from our archive help explain why the move is so contentious, and how it is viewed by different interest groups.</p>
<h2>1. Jerusalem 101</h2>
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a deeply rooted and complex history. Professor <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dan-arbell-429005">Dan Arbell</a>, a scholar-in-residence at American University and a former Israeli diplomat, identifies several key moments – from the Ottoman Empire to the Six-Day War – that help explain why <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-former-israeli-diplomat-answers-5-questions-about-jerusalem-88922">the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem is so controversial</a>.</p>
<p>He writes: “The international community hasn’t recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and still views the city as disputed territory. It has long been considered an issue that must be settled between Israelis and Palestinians in the context of peace negotiations. As a result, all foreign embassies operate from the city of Tel Aviv in Israel.”</p>
<p>Now other countries like <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/why-these-latin-american-countries-support-moving-their-embassies-to-jerusalem/">Guatemala and Paraguay</a> are planning to follow the U.S. example and move their embassies too.</p>
<h2>2. What it means to Palestinians</h2>
<p>Many Palestinians protesting the embassy move fear that it will end the possibility of a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. However, Middle East scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/maha-nassar-428768">Maha Nassar</a> suggests that <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-trumps-declaration-on-jerusalem-mean-to-palestinians-88841">it may not be all bad</a>.</p>
<p>Nassar argues that the idea of a two-state solution has never been realistic, in part because of the power imbalance between the state of Israel with strong U.S. support and the stateless Palestinian people. Trump’s decision has closed the door on this approach to peace. </p>
<p>“Now that the two-state solution is over, perhaps the region can start looking at alternative visions for a genuine peace that actually represents the rights and claims of all people living on this land,” Nassar writes.</p>
<h2>3. What it means to Trump supporters</h2>
<p>Many critics of Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy suggest that it was primarily done to please his conservative evangelical base. But why do evangelicals in the U.S. care about this particular aspect of U.S. Middle East policy?</p>
<p>Well, it has to do with <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-evangelical-supporters-welcome-his-move-on-jerusalem-88775">their beliefs about the end of times</a> and the second coming of Jesus, according to <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julie-ingersoll-428489">Julie Ingersoll</a>, a religious studies professor. Ingersoll explains that some interpretations of the Bible suggest that returning Jerusalem to Jewish control is one major precursor to a “cosmic battle between good and evil called Armageddon at which Satan will be defeated and Christ will establish his earthly kingdom.”</p>
<p>Over time, this narrative has become popularized in books and movies, and a powerful force in American evangelicals’ political attitudes.</p>
<h2>4. What it means to American Jews</h2>
<p>The new U.S. embassy was opened on the 70th anniversary of the state of Israel being established. It’s an anniversary that young Jewish Americans <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-israel-turns-70-many-young-american-jews-turn-away-95271">may not be as eager to celebrate</a> as their parents or grandparents were, writes <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dov-waxman-159628">Dov Waxman</a>.</p>
<p>According to Waxman, a professor of Israel studies at Northeastern University, younger generations of Jews have generally felt more secure in the U.S. and grown up overwhelmingly liberal and “dovish” in their politics.</p>
<p>“Many find it hard to reconcile the values they have internalized from these belief systems with the idea of a state that gives preferential treatment to Jews at the expense of its non-Jewish citizens, most notably its Arab minority – as Israel does,” he writes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96590/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
What does this move represent? It depends on who you ask, according to scholars in this roundup of articles from our archives.Danielle Douez, Associate Editor, Politics + SocietyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/461092015-08-14T10:21:49Z2015-08-14T10:21:49ZJimmy Carter in Cuba<p>Thirty-eight years ago, Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro agreed to open downgraded embassies called Interest Sections in Havana and Washington DC. Carter’s intent was to normalize relations between the two countries during his tenure. </p>
<p>Those intentions were derailed by Cuba’s <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-oe-leogrande12-2009jan12-story.html#page=1">adventures</a> in Africa, the Mariel Boatlift <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mariel-boatlift.htm">refugee crisis</a> and the election of Ronald Reagan. </p>
<p>Carter left office, but the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/10/the-u-s-and-cuba-will-soon-agree-to-reopen-their-embassies-heres-what-happens-next/">Interest Sections</a> remained. </p>
<p>And now – five US and two Cuban presidents later – the Interest Sections are again embassies. US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Cuba on August 14 to raise the American flag over the embassy in Havana.</p>
<p>This new openness required courage from two reformist presidents, Barack Obama and Raul Castro, but Jimmy Carter’s initiatives beginning four decades ago helped pave the way. </p>
<h2>Domestic pressures</h2>
<p>It took six years in office before Obama had the political capital to spend on changing Cuba policy. </p>
<p>At the beginning of Obama’s administration, Cuban-Americans opposed to an opening controlled key positions in Congress. That group included Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla, then chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senator Robert Menendez, D-NJ, former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Obama waited until after the last election of his tenure – the 2014 midterm vote – to announce the results of his secret negotiations with the Cuban regime.</p>
<p>In Cuba, Raul Castro initiated difficult economic reforms in 2011 to wean half a million citizens from the state’s payroll and allow small businesses to begin the transition from a state-owned economy to a partially <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2013/11/cuba-entrepreneurs-middle-classes-feinberg">market-led one</a>. He waited to get those reforms well under way before beginning to deal with the ambiguous politics of the United States. Still, Castro was pressed by the need to lift the financial strangulation imposed not only by the trade embargo but also the additional US financial restrictions on foreign banks dealing with Cuba.</p>
<p>By the time of the announcement in December 2014, <a href="http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/events/past-events/atlantic-council-poll-americans-want-new-relations-with-cuba">public opinion</a> in the US – even among Cuban-Americans – favored <a href="https://cri.fiu.edu/research/cuba-poll/2014-fiu-cuba-poll.pdf">normalization</a> and lifting the embargo.</p>
<p>Work Carter did decades ago helped change that public opinion.</p>
<h2>Throwing the first pitch</h2>
<p>In 1977, Carter’s policy changes were quite dramatic: he removed all travel restrictions on Americans to travel to Cuba and took the first big steps toward normalization while still in the midst of the Cold War. </p>
<p>In 2002 – well after leaving office in 1981 – <a href="http://www.cartercenter.org/news/documents/doc528.html">Carter traveled to Cuba</a> at the invitation of Fidel Castro, the first US president to do so after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Carter sought to improve understanding between the two peoples and the two governments. </p>
<p>Carter made <a href="http://www.cartercenter.org/news/documents/doc517.html">a speech</a> in Spanish, broadcast live to the entire island, in which he called on the US as the more powerful country to take the first step and lift the embargo. He also called on the Cuban government to respect its own constitution by protecting free speech and assembly, and allowing the citizens to petition for a change in the laws. </p>
<p>He introduced the Cuban people to the <a href="http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/up/VARELA%20PROJECT.pdf">Varela Project</a>, an effort led by human rights activist Osvaldo Paya to collect signatures to trigger a referendum for legislative reform. The state-controlled media had ensured that most Cuban people had never heard of the project prior to the speech. </p>
<p>I accompanied Carter on that trip, as then-director of The Carter Center’s <a href="http://www.cartercenter.org/peace/americas/index.html">Americas Program</a>, and I negotiated the terms for delivery of that speech with the Cuban authorities. I watched as Fidel Castro and his cabinet sat stony-faced on the front row of the University of Havana’s grand salon. Afterward, I feared a berating from Castro, but Castro only came up and said to Carter, “Let’s go watch the baseball game.” </p>
<p>Castro asked Carter for one favor – to walk out to the pitcher’s mound to throw out the first pitch without his security detail, to demonstrate Carter’s confidence in the Cuban people. Carter did so.</p>
<p>Carter and I <a href="http://www.cartercenter.org/news/trip_reports/cuba-march2011.html">traveled again </a>to Cuba in 2011, this time to meet President Raul Castro. Relations were stymied by the imprisonment of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/amid-jubilation-marylander-alan-gross-is-released-from-cuban-incarceration/2014/12/17/e257c56e-8607-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html">American citizen Alan Gross</a> in Cuba and the competing priorities of both presidents. </p>
<p>Osvaldo Paya <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19022749">died</a> tragically in a car accident in 2012. His petition campaign had been twice delivered to the National Assembly with more than the required 10,000 signatures, but not accepted. </p>
<h2>Change is coming</h2>
<p>Cubans are slowly gaining rights to improved communication and internet, but implementation remains slow. Competing political parties are still not allowed. The US trade embargo is still in place until the US Congress decides to lift it.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, leaders in both countries are paving the way to test Jimmy Carter’s persistent belief that the best way to improve the lives of all Cubans and to overcome differences with any government is through engagement. </p>
<p>The tide is rapidly turning in favor of closer relations between both countries. The excitement was palpable at the opening of the Cuban embassy in DC a month ago. </p>
<p>The holdouts in Congress – still blocking US companies who want to trade with Cuba and American citizens who want to travel freely – will be forced to give in sooner, rather than later. </p>
<p>When that happens, we should give some of the credit to Jimmy Carter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Lynn McCoy is former director of the Carter Center's Americas Program and current Director of the Global Studies Institute at Georgia State University.</span></em></p>John Kerry will raise the flag over the American Embassy in Cuba on Friday. That moment is possible thanks to work Jimmy Carter began four decades ago.Jennifer Lynn McCoy, Distinguished University Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the Global Studies Institute, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/44802011-12-02T03:45:15Z2011-12-02T03:45:15ZThe long history of Iranian distrust of the West<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6084/original/c5aaccff348eea80-1322783720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iranian protestors storm the UK embassy in Tehran this week.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Taberkenareh</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Iran’s relations with the West have been difficult for years. </p>
<p>The growing international condemnation of Iran for its less-than-transparent nuclear program, based on a report by the <a href="http://www.iaea.org/">International Atomic Energy Agency</a> has led to more sanctions on Iran. </p>
<p>This provided the pretext for the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/29/iranian-students-storm-british-embassy?intcmp=239">storming of the UK diplomatic compound in Tehran</a>, reminiscent of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis">hostage taking of the US diplomatic personnel in 1979</a>, lasting for 444 days. </p>
<h2>We might not remember, Iranians do</h2>
<p>Iran’s relations with the West have been deteriorating with no end in sight. Commentary on this troubled relationship has generally focused on the experience of the 1979 revolution which brought the Islamic regime to power. But the pre-1979 history of Iran’s relations with the West was not trouble-free. Iran was never colonized by European powers, but this did not protect it from the colonial reach of the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>In the late nineteenth century, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company">British-India Company</a> had established a monopoly over tobacco trade in Iran, at the expense of the local merchant class. </p>
<p>At the beginning of the twentieth century the UK established exclusive rights to prospect for oil in Iran, resulting in the formation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Persian_Oil_Company">Anglo-Persian Oil Company</a> in 1908. Dissatisfaction with these exclusive rights, and the inability of the Persian dynasties to withstand colonial pressure was a major source of public anger and strikes. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Constitutional_Revolution">1906 constitutional revolution</a> was inspired by the desire to curb the absolute power of the king and reduce foreign influence in Iran. Tellingly, the revolution started in the public garden opposite the British Embassy in Tehran. </p>
<h2>Oil, coups and Iranian anger</h2>
<p>The Iranian parliament remained a rubber-stamp institution until 1951, when it voted to nationalize Iranian oil and boot-out the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. This was a major success in asserting Iran’s national interests, but the charismatic Prime Minister <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh">Mohammad Mossadegh</a> paid a heavy price for his leadership.</p>
<p>In a well-orchestrated move, the American CIA and the British government colluded with the Iranian King to remove Mossadegh from office in 1953. Following the coup, Mossadegh was humiliated in a sham trial and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6085/original/75460f101d8c36de-1322783991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6085/original/75460f101d8c36de-1322783991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6085/original/75460f101d8c36de-1322783991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6085/original/75460f101d8c36de-1322783991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6085/original/75460f101d8c36de-1322783991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6085/original/75460f101d8c36de-1322783991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6085/original/75460f101d8c36de-1322783991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iranian protestors often target Western embassies and symbols.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Taberkenareh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The leitmotif of Iran’s relations with the West until 1979 was weak dynasties succumbing to colonial pressures. This was how the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavi_dynasty">Pahlavi dynasty</a> was seen by the public as it consolidated its relationship with the United States in the post-WWII era. The anti-American aspect of the 1979 revolution was a manifestation of a widely held belief that Washington was the mainstay of the dynasty.</p>
<h2>The role and evolution of anti Western attitudes</h2>
<p>Anti-Americanism has been a hallmark of the revolution but it has also gone through changes in the last three decades. President Muhammad Khatami tried to move Iran away from its self-imposed isolation and repair relations with the United States by appealing to universal values to serve as the basis of a “civilizational dialogue”. </p>
<p>A survey conducted in Iran during his presidency (1997-2005), revealed a large proportion of Iranian youth favouring normalization of relations with the West. Following the September 11 attacks, large crowds in Tehran were moved into a spontaneous display of solidarity with the victims in New York. This was far removed from the scenes of the 1979 hostage taking crisis.</p>
<p>The anti-Western sentiment in Iran, however, serves an important purpose for the conservative leadership. Memories of foreign involvement in Iran provide justification for the policies of the incumbent leadership, which has demonstrated no hesitation in cultivating feelings of antipathy and fear towards the West. </p>
<p>The storming of the British diplomatic compound was a deliberate slap in the face of the United Kingdom, raising tensions and justifying the regime in the eyes of its supporters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/4480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shahram Akbarzadeh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Iran’s relations with the West have been difficult for years. The growing international condemnation of Iran for its less-than-transparent nuclear program, based on a report by the International Atomic…Shahram Akbarzadeh, Deputy Director National Centre of Excellence in Islamic Studies, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.