Dilemmas of Democracy and Dictatorship: Place, Time and Ideology in Global Perspective

The phenomenon of globalization applies to political violence as well as to more benign aspects of life. Most people in the West, as well as the Third World, politicians and media included, are still missing this point. As a result, they are failing to adapt to the new realities--unlike their enemies.

Dilemmas of Democracy and Dictatorship is a collection of essays Radu has published over the past decade. Some are opinion pieces; others are academic articles. The topics include political violence and terrorism in general, and in specific areas--Latin America, the Balkans, Turkey, Sub-Saharan Africa, Western and Eastern Europe. Radu discusses the causes and methods of contemporary terrorism, the process of state decay in some African countries, and mentalities and absurdities in Latin and Balkan politics. He also points out Western European illusions, delusions, and attitudes, and reviews American policy and confusion in dealing with the Third World. At times the analysis is political, other times military, and often it is sociological or psychological. In the author's words he is "always politically incorrect." The approach is multidisciplinary.

What ties these disparate essays together is Radu's personal experience--both as a field researcher and in a few cases as a participant in ongoing events, and his personal idiosyncrasies, opinions, and perception of areas visited. These essays clearly demonstrate that in the face of globalization the world is not a village but a conglomerate of differences. This volume will be of particular interest to students of political violence, insurgency/guerrilla warfare, and Third World politics, journalists, and policymakers.

Michael S. Radu is senior fellow and co-chairman of the Center on Terrorism at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. Educated in communist Romania and at Columbia University, he has taught in the United States and South Africa. He has traveled to over forty countries doing research on local politics and political violence and has served as electoral observer in four countries, including as a UN observer in Cambodia. He is the author or editor of ten books.