Book Review: Sharansky - A Staunch Believer

(New York Sun)Ira Stoll - Natan Sharansky's 1988 prison memoir, Fear No Evil, is a classic. Now, in the midst of a new war, Sharansky and co-author Ron Dermer have written a new book, The Case for Democracy. It is part memoir of Sharansky's time since his release from prison, part argument for the policy of exporting freedom and democracy to those areas of the world that are bereft of them. It is the perfect gift for those who think that the Arabs or Muslims are too primitive for freedom and democracy and who worry that for America to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East would jeopardize American interests, as well as for those who think that freedom and democracy can't be exported by America, or that to do so is a form of imperialism. He writes. "The formula that triggered a democratic revolution in the Soviet Union had three components: People inside who yearned to be free, leaders outside who believed they could be, and policies that linked the free world's relations with the USSR to the Soviet regime's treatment of its own people....It will work anywhere around the globe, including in the Arab world."


2004-11-12 00:00:00

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