Michael Strauss

The Leasing of Guantanamo Bay

Michael J. Strauss

ISBN 0-313-37782-0/978-0-313-37782-2 – Published by Praeger Security International – May 30, 2009

THE AUTHOR WILL ADDRESS A MEETING OF SIHRG AND ANSWER QUESTIONS ON WEDNESDAY 24TH MARCH 2010 AT 6.30PM AT BPP RED LION ST HOLBORN LONDON

MICHAEL J. STRAUSS, a Lecturer in International Relations at the Centre d’Etudes Diplomatiques et Stratégiques, Paris, specializes in territorial leases as phenomena of international relations and international law. Prior to entering academia, he was an international journalist and served as bureau chief for Agence France-Presse’s AFX News in Paris, Knight-Ridder Financial News in Madrid, and Dow Jones News Service in Geneva. He took his Ph.D. in International Relations and Diplomacy from the Centre d’Etudes Diplomatiques et Stratégiques and his M.Sc. in Journalism from Columbia University, where he was an International Fellow in the School of International Affairs.

Post-9/11 events at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay have generated a spate of books on its use as a detention center in the U.S. fight against terrorism. Yet the crucial enabling factor - the lease that gave the U.S. control over the territory in Cuba - has until now escaped any but cursory consideration. The Leasing of Guantanamo Bay explains how Guantanamo Bay came to be a leased territory where the U.S. has no sovereignty and Cuba has no jurisdiction. This is the first definitive account of the details and workings of the unusual and problematic state-to-state leasing arrangement that is the essential but murky foundation for all the ongoing controversies about Guantanamo Bay’s role in U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, charges of U.S. human rights violations, and U.S.-Cuban relations.

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“Michael Strauss adds an important and unique contribution to the pursuit of justice in the 21st century by calling into question the possibility of activities in the arena of a leased territory. By fully examining the Guantanamo lease, he offers a view of how lawlessness may easily flourish.”

– Michael Ratner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights, and author of Guantanamo: What the World Should Know

“Michael Strauss has written an admirably authoritative study of the long-term leasing arrangments for the American naval facility at Guantanamo Bay. It is an illuminating and learned account of the evolving Guantanamo experience from the perspective of international law.”

– Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur for Palestine

“This excellent book, by an authority on the subject, gives the reader, through an extensive bibliography and appendices, a rare insight into the political decision by a state to use leased territory for purposes of bypassing the legal rules it sets for itself on its own sovereign territory. … The book is a landmark contribution to international law.”

– Dr. Johannes Van Aggelen, former senior UN human rights offical and international law expert

“Strauss has composed the most comprehensive analysis to date of the legal status of Guantanamo Bay and its detention centers. More than just a history, The Leasing of Guantanamo Bay masterfully untangles the threads of law, politics and power that have made Guantanamo one of the strangest parcels of land on earth. For those who are interested in what goes on at Guantanamo and why, the book is indispensable.”

– Marc Falkoff, Assistant Professor at Northern Illinois University College of Law and editor of Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak