During his 35-year Foreign Service career, Mr. Levitsky served as Ambassador to Brazil, Ambassador to Bulgaria, Executive Secretary of the Department of State, and Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Policy. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Human Rights, Deputy Director of the Voice of America, Director of UN Political Affairs, Director of U.S.-Soviet Bilateral Relations, and at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He has been a professor of international policy and practice at the Gerald Ford School since 2006.

Ambassador Levitsky will examine U.S.-Cuban relations from both their historical and contemporary perspectives. He will focus on the period beginning in 1956 when President Eisenhower broke relations with Cuba and imposed an economic embargo on the island nation and extending through the Obama Administration’s reestablishment of relations in 2015. He will also discuss his personal involvement with Cuban affairs during his diplomatic career and will conclude with an examination of the Trump Administration’s policies toward Cuba.        

This is the second in a six-lecture series. The subject is Cuba: Our Neighbor in Transition. The next lecture in this series will be October 5, 2017. The title is The Fascination with the Jews of Cuba.