Security Intelligence Services in New Democracies: The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania FROM THE PUBLISHER
The first account of the secret police in Eastern Europe after 1989, this book uses a wide range of sources, including archives, to identify what has and has not changed since the end of Communism. After explaining the structure and workings of two of the area's most feared services, Czechoslovakia's StB and Romania's Securitate, the authors detail the creation of new security intelligence institutions, the development of contacts with the West, and forms of democratic control.
Author Biography: Kieran Williams is Lecturer at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London.
Author Biography: Dennis Deletant is Professor of Romanian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
The control of security intelligence in post-communism merits attention in part because, like minority rights or welfare reform, it's a problem that "mature" democracies don't have an answer for. But post-communism brings a host of specific challenges as well: a societal lack of trust in institutions beyond the family or other highly personalized networks; the politicization of bureaucracy; questions about the handling of files assembled by the old regime; a lack of threat assessment; and others. Williams and Deletant, both of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London, look at problems related to security intelligence in three eastern states, all of which have relations with Western institutions and which have followed distinctive paths of transition since 1989. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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