Compared to the nearly six months it took to publish regulations easing family travel and remittance restrictions in 2009, today's publication of the new Cuba travel and remittance rules announced on January 14th was clean and efficient.  The administration is to be commended on finally using the rip-the-bandaid-off approach; announcing a policy without implementing it leads to all kinds of meddling and second-guessing by outsiders.  Which, actually, is exactly what appeared to happen when the existence of these draft regulations leaked out last August.  When the regulations didn't come during the August recess, nor the October recess, nor even the end of year/holiday recess, many believed they'd been nixed.   And with the fabled regulations went any hope that the Obama administration was capable of formulating and implementing a more coherent, results-oriented, and more U.S.-interests based Cuba policy than the one it inherited.

By those measures, the administration truly made progress this month on one of the most neglected but promising foreign policy issues on its plate.  A the same time, I'd be lying if I didn't insist there's still ample room for improvement.  One hopes this wasn't just a "get-this-thing-off-my-plate" move, but rather the unjamming of whatever logjam there was on an issue that offers this administration such outsized gain at so little risk.

On coherence: With the new rules, and the announcement that preceded them, the administration has been at pains to state clearly that it views these new measures as a continuation of the objective that brought us the 2009 family travel and remittance reforms (which candidate Obama promised during his presidential campaign).  From today's Federal Register:

"In a statement issued on January 14, 2011, the President announced 
a series of changes to ease the restrictions on travel to and from Cuba 
as part of an initiative to support the Cuban people's desire to freely 
determine their country's future by, among other things, supporting 
licensed travel and intensifying people-to-people exchanges. This 
announcement builds on the President's April 13, 2009 initiative to 
promote greater contact between separated family members in the United 
States and Cuba."

That probably deserves an A for the effort to build some coherence.  And looking back, the Bush administration - for all its tough rhetoric - lacked any.  In 2003, it eases rules on family travel, but in 2004, it yanked them back.  In 2003, it ended the people-to-people exchanges President Obama has just restored, but tirelessly employed the phrase, "reaching out to the Cuban people."

On being results-oriented: on these latest measures, obviously, it's too soon to tell.   But given that  between 300,000 and 400,000 Cuban Americans visited their relatives in Cuba thanks to the 2009 Obama administration reforms, can anyone doubt the success of that policy?  Of course, what that policy lacked was a broader outreach to Cubans who don't have such connections in the United States, and that is what these new regulations begin to address.  Now, Americans will again reach Cubans via educational, professional, cultural and religious networks - as they did a decade ago.  But there's more, particularly with the Cuban government in the middle of a major economic overhaul that emphasizes the non-state sector there.  Thus, Americans' increased travel at this moment could have an even greater impact on those Cubans who are stepping up their participation in the tourism market (even if these American travelers aren't "tourists" they still need beds to sleep in, restaurants to eat in and taxis to take them where they need to go).  So the results of even a limited opening of American travel to the island will surely be significant for the Cuban people.

But, where do U.S. interests fit into this picture?  Disappointingly, one could argue they don't really.  Not from a strategic foreign policy perspective and not from an humanistic one either.  Do only Cubans benefit from these contacts?  What about the rights of Americans to travel, connect and collaborate - (thanks to John McAuliff for catching a whopper typo here earlier that I've now fixed)  the neglect of which damages our reputation with global allies and foes alike?  Part of what would earn this administration plaudits abroad for a small but important step like this one would be to not only implement these new travel rules but to do so with a new rhetoric focused on what's good for Cubans Americans and the rest of the world.  But this announcement, which essentially restores President Clinton's Cuba policies (plus several small measures that do go further), sounds more like Bush than Clinton.

The administration is right to believe that these measures will benefit the Cuban people - they undoubtedly will.  But to focus its rationale for action so singularly on bringing Cubans "freedom" and "independence" from their government could actually undermine those very goals.  Just take a look at this reaction from Cuba's Education Minister, whom Granma reports earlier this week condemned "the policy of subversion of the United States towards Cuban universities."  Instead of heralding the opportunity for both peoples to benefit from increased contact and academic collaboration, he chose to focus on what the administration focused on - the continuing U.S. objective to change Cuba.  Hopefully, we'll see further nuanced statements in the coming days and weeks not only from Cuban officials, but from leaders at the State Department, ideally, Secretary Clinton and Assistant Secretary Arturo Valenzuela, among others, who have demonstrated they understand how to communicate more effectively with our estranged neighbor when they want to.