The beauty of the latest proposal, as laid out in Science, is that it turns Guantánamo’s historical liability—its isolation—into an asset. (During the Cold War, the U.S. installed land mines along the perimeter of the base; those have now been removed.) Several species, including the Cuban iguana, that are faring poorly outside the base appear to have thrived inside its fences. And the notion of transforming the site of one of the world’s most notorious prisons into a “peace park” has an undeniable charm. As no less of an expert on reconciliation than Nelson Mandela once put it, the concept of the peace park “can be embraced by all.”
Elizabeth Kolbert reports on the recent Science policy piece in The New Yorker.