Western Approaches to Eastern Europe (review)

168 SAIS REVIEW unanswered question might then be how policymakers choose some lessons over others. In addition, Khong's use ofa single case blurs the fact that lessons are probably less numerous than analogies. In other words, there are certain sets of recurring lessons to be learned from history; stand firm in response to aggression, conciliate rather than risk war too quickly, and so forth. These maxims recur throughout history in the form of various and changing analogies. Perhaps there remains an interesting study which would seek to create a typology of states or personalities and their preference for certain lessons rather than others. Only in this way might a truly powerful predictive theory be developed. However, given the task he set for himself, Khong has succeeded. His book is a significant contribution to the foreign policy decision-making literature. Western Approaches to Eastern Europe. Edited by Ivo John Lederer, with contributions by J. F. Brown, Robert D. Hormats, and William H. Luers. New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1992. 119 pp. $14.95/Paperback. Reviewed by Dariusz W. Szwarcewicz, MA. Candidate, SAIS. "What is to be done?" asked Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in his famous 1902 pamphlet. He answered with a program outlining how a disciplined elite of professional revolutionaries might seize power from bourgeois capitalists. Just fifteen years later, he succeeded in putting his "policy prescriptions" to the test, changing the fate of Russia, and eventually Eastern Europe, for more than seventy years. But in 1989 the communist era ended and the capitalists came back. The original question returned as well, albeit with a new ironic twist: "What is to be done in the 1990s to undo the decades of communist devastation?" In Western Approaches to Eastern Europe—a collection of essays originating from papers written for a symposium entitled "The United States and Eastern Europe" held in New York on September 10-11, 1991—three prominent experts offer their personal answers, with particular attention given to the policy implications for the United States. Each author tackles a different aspect of the problem. J. F. Brown provides an overview of the "crowded and daunting" political agenda in Eastern Europe. Robert D. Hormats investigates the major economic issues. William H. Luers reflects on how American and Western European interests in the region could be harmonized in the future. In his introductory remarks, the book's editor, Ivo John Lederer, helps focus the debate by identifying three well-chosen components of the original question. Can the Eastern European countriesbecome stable democracies with viable market economies? How much is it going to cost and what form should the aid assume? And finally, does the United States ultimately care about Eastern Europe? The U.S. policy makers must first settle these issues of feasibility, scope and purpose before defining a specific policy towards the region. Brown presents a depressingly long list of monumental tasks facing the postcommunist societies. He attempts to split them into manageable units but then warns that all problems are hopelessly interdependent and, therefore, all divisions must be arbitrary. Reformers would find relatively few obstacles in their economic BOOK REVIEWS 169 transformations if there were no "political, national, social, moral, ideological, cultural, and psychological revolutions swirling around at the same time." East Europeans must first overcome the "moral pollution" ofthe Communist past, which is so clearly visible in rampant corruption, apathy, and lack of work ethic. But most societies fear opening the "Pandora's Box" of their past: the Germans still feel dazed by the shocking revelations found in the secret police files, and the Poles have realized that the seeminglyjust and necessary process ofrestitution ofprivate property confiscated by the Communists is only delaying economic reforms and pleasing nobody but the lawyers involved. Radical nationalists have brilliantly exploited that fear and, in the process, poisoned internal and regional relations. But the greatest problem, according to Brown, will be the confrontation between Slavs and Muslims in the Balkans which could lead to the return ofthe old Eastern Question: the power struggle pitting Europe and Russia against Turkey and the Muslim world. Slow progress in economic reforms has clearly irritated and discouraged the West, blaming the lack of success on...