It’s a cliche to say that exemplary medical care is Cuba’s greatest export, but it’s also a fact. Since 1959, Cuba has developed a uniquely substantive model of diplomacy — a model that, at its best, approaches a kind of state-driven internationalism.

Cuba is a small embargoed country, with a GDP only about three-quarters the size of Puerto Rico’s. Yet it provides its citizens with some of the best medical care anywhere in the world, with a socialized system that consistently outperforms the US on infant mortality, doctor-patient ratios, and other key indicators. And that’s in addition to providing more medical assistance to Third World nations than all the G8 countries combined.