Julia E. Sweig

Dr. Julia E. Sweig is author of numerous publications on Latin America and American foreign policy and a frequent speaker on the transformation in Cuba. She served for nearly 16 years as the Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies and director for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she also directed CFR's Global Brazil initiative. Dr. Sweig also writes a bi-weekly column for Folha de São Paulo, Brazil's leading newspaper and serves on the international advisory board of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI).

Dr. Sweig’s publications on Cuba include Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know and Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century. Her 2002 book, Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground, received the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis Award for best book of the year by an independent scholar. Dr. Sweig was the Sol M. Linowitz professor of international relations, Hamilton College in 2011, and, from 1999 to 2008, served as a consultant on Latin American affairs for the Aspen Institute's Congressional Program.

She holds a BA from the University of California and an MA and PhD from the Johns Hopkins SAIS.