(iPoster) Kennedy and Hegemony: The US Stake in the Cuban Missile Crisis

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Political Methodology & Foreign Policy I – Great Power Competition and Strategic Rivalry
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Foreign Policy I – Great Power Competition and Strategic Rivalry

Abstract

The Soviet Union imposed an inadvertent dilemma on the US by deploying missiles to Cuba. Nearly alone, Kennedy judged that US acquiescence risked US prestige and its status as hegemon in the post-1945 liberal order because the US was unwilling to exercise its power. If it acted, it risked perception that it was reckless. This explanation neatly addresses the secrecy of the trade of missiles in Turkey. Khrushchev probably did not understand the threat that deployment posed. This political science explanation differs from standard historical explanations that emphasize views of Kennedy’s advisers, who focused on increased Soviet capabilities and Berlin. My argument has important policy implications: countries may brandish nuclear weapons without understanding the stakes, the stakes for each party may be different, and threats against a hegemon may induce a response based on status rather than on the claimed threat.

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