Dr George Lambie
Dr George Lambie
George Lambie’s interest in Cuba began as an undergraduate and after the completion of the PhD in 1986, he took conducted research into Cuba’s relations with Western Europe. George moved to De Montfort University in 1991 to help run the International Public Administration Unit. In 1995, the Unit secured support from the European Union to run the first major co-operation project with Cuba and George became Co-Director along with Cuba’s then Minister of Finance. A further project was approved in 1998 which ran until 2001. In 1997 he was awarded a visiting Professorship of the University of Havana. His publications include three books and over 50 articles.
george.lambie@cubastudies.org
A) Publications
Books
1994. The Fractured Blockade: West-European Cuban Relations during the Revolution (Macmillan). Joint editor with Professor Alistair Hennessy. I conducted two years funded research to write the four core chapters of this book.
2008. Forthcoming - Globalisation and Democracy:, Setting a Context for the Cuban Revolution in the 21st Century. Single authored monograph.
Articles
1989 (October). ‘Trade Relations Between Western Europe and Cuba in the 1970s’, Cuba Business (London and New York), vol.3, no.5.
1990 (February). ‘Britain and Cuba in the 1960s’, Cuba Business, vol.4, no.1.
1990 (August). ‘Marriage of Convenience’ [Political and commercial relations between Franco’s Spain and Cuba in the 1960s], Part 1, Cuba Business, vol. 4, no. 3, June 1, Part 2, Cuba Business, vol.4, no. 4.
1993 (Sep.) ‘Managing on a Knife Edge’ [Cuban local government and its economic problems], Cuba Business, vol.7, no.7.
1995 (April) ‘The Blockade on Cuba: West European Cuban Relations During the Revolution’, Caribbean Institute and Study Centre for Latin America (CISCLA), Inter American University of Puerto Rico.
1998 (May) ‘Cuban - European Relations: Historical Perspectives and Political Consequences’, Cuban Studies Association (University of Miami), Vol. 3, No.4.
1998 ‘La difícil incerción de Cuba en un mundo global’, Rabida (Huelva, Spain), No.17, 11-19.
1999. ‘Local Government in Cuba: Democracy through Participation?’, co-authored with Professor John Greenwood, Local Government Studies, Vol.25, No.1 (Spring 1999), pp.55-74.
1999. ‘Reinforcing Participatory Democracy in Cuba: An Alternative Development Strategy’, Democratisation, Vol. 6, No.3, Autumn 1999, pp.30-61. Winner of the Frank Cass prize for the best political article in 1999.
B) Main Conference Papers
1989 (November). ‘British-Cuban Relations in the 1960s’. Symposium on Cuba, University of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
1992 (May). ‘West-European Cuban Commercial Relations 1960-1980’, Euromoney Conference, Cancun, Mexico.
1993 (May). ‘Cuba and the New World Order’. Conference on Cuba and the Caribbean organised by the Simon Bolivar University, Caracas, Venezuela (May 1993).
1994 (January). ‘Prospects for Cuba after the Fall of Communism’. Presented to the Conservative Foreign Affairs Committee at the House of Commons.
1994 (April). ‘Global/Regional Integration and Neo-Liberalism; The Experience of the Americas and a European Response’. European Consortium for Political Research, Madrid Sessions.
1994 (June). ‘EU Policy Towards Cuba’. Foreign and Commonwealth Office seminar ‘The Implications of Change in Cuba’. Chaired by the Secretary of State.
1995 (April).‘The Blockade on Cuba: West European Cuban Relations during the Revolution’. Caribbean Institute and Study Centre for Latin America (CISCLA), Inter American University of Puerto Rico. Supported by the FCO.
1996 (Nov.). ‘Cuba and Western Europe’. Seminar, ‘Cuba at the Crossroads: Can Europe Make a Difference?’ Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology, University of Leiden, the Netherlands.
1997 (Jan). ‘Problems Facing the Caribbean and Cuba in the Post-Cold War Global Environment’. International conference held at the University of Huelva, ‘La Economía Centroamericana y Caribeña en el Contexto de la Globalización’. Same paper presented at the University of Seville on 29 Jan.
1997 (Feb.-March). ‘Cuban Local Government: Democracy Through Participation, or Political Control?’ Presented in workshop 16 ‘Explaining the Character of New Democracies in Latin America’, ECPR Joint Sessions, Bern, Switzerland.
1997 (April). ‘The United States, Europe and Cuba in the Post-Cold War Period’. Society for Latin American Studies Conference, St Andrews University.
1997 (April). ‘Cuba and the New World Order’ [New Paper]. International Conference held at the University of Middlesex ‘Direction, Significance and Content of Cuba’s Economic Reform’.
1997 (October). ‘Prospects for the Cuban Revolution in the Post-Communist Era’, presented at conference entitled ‘What’s Left of the Left? Latin America Thirty Years After Che’ held at the University of Wolverhampton
1997 (October). ‘European Attitudes Towards, and Relations with, the Castro Regime’. Presented at the Illinois Conference on Latin American Studies.
1998 (March). ‘El Sistema de Administración Local en Cuba: ¿ Democracia por la
Participación’? Inaugural Conference of Forum for the Study of Cuba attended by the Rector of Havana University.Held at the University of Wolverhampton.
1998 (November). ‘The Changing Global Order and the Cuban Revolution’, Cymru Cuba conference held at Theatre Clwyd, North Wales.
2000 (May). 'Globalisation, Democracy and the Cuban Revolution', paper presented at the University of East Anglia
2001 (April/May) 'Needs, Wants, Demands - Concepts of Participation in the UK and Cuba', Anglo-Cuban Primary Care Conference, Hotel National, Havana.
2001 (May) ‘The Cuban Participatory Model’, Forum for the Study of Cuba, annual conference, ‘Vanguards in Modern Cuba’, University of Havana.
2001 (September). ‘The Economic Viability of Cuba's Model of Sustainable Agriculture in the Process of Globalization’. Conference on Cuban Sustainable Agriculture, University of Michigan.
2006 (September) ‘The Changing Political Economy of Latin America. From Laissez
Faire to Neoliberalism and Beyond’, Consejo Latinoamericano de Escuelas de Administración (CLADEA), Montpellier, France. Selected as the ‘Best Paper’ out of over 250 submitted. http://www.supdeco-montpellier.com/cladea 2006/resultado.htm
2007 (January) ‘Understanding Participatory Democracy in Cuba’, Canning House, Cuba Initiative Seminar Series.
C) Commissioned Reports
1995 ‘Budgeting and Taxation needs of Cuba’s Reform Process’. Co-authored with Professor Gregory Wilkinson Riddle. Sponsored by the European Commission (DG1B).
1996 ‘European assistance in Cuba’s tax reforms’. Co-authored with Professor Gregory Wilkinson Riddle. European Commission.
D) Membership of Committees and Awards
1997 Professorship of the University of Havana with option to lecture when in Cuba.
1998 to date Member of the Steering Committee of the Cuba Initiative Advisory Group, chaired by Lord Moynihan (formerly by Baroness Young).
E) Projects
In June 1995, after a series of negotiations between the Cuban Government (Dr José Luis Rodríguez) and the European Commission, with contributions from staff at De Montfort University (Leicester), a consortium was formed at the request of the Commission entitled the Cuba Financial Reform Group (CFRG) of which Dr George Lambie was appointed as Co -Director with a Cuban counterpart in the Ministry of Finance. The CFRG’s participating European institutions are De Montfort University, the German Economic Research Institute (DIW - Berlin) and the Complutense University in Madrid. It’s initial project was entitled ‘Assistance with the Creation of a Fiscal and Budgetary Administration in Cuba’ (CUB/B7-3011/95/044 - 650,000 Euros) which had the objective of providing Cuba’s Ministry of Finance with advice and technical support to build a primary taxation system, establish budgetary procedures to reflect the emergence of a small business sector and improve and modernise accounting practices.
A second European Commission project (CUB/B&-311/98/095 - 700,000 Euros) was awarded to the CFRG in 1998 which sought to provide more advanced support with accounting practices and budgeting, both at national and local level.
The CFRG became involved in a number of other projects mainly funded through the British Embassy’s Small Grants Scheme. These included working with the Ministry of Finance on Banking Regulation, International Accounting Standards, Budgeting and Local Government Finance. Further projects were conducted with the Ministry of Agriculture to co-operate in the field of organic horticultural production.
