Review by Choice Review
Pospieszna (postdoctoral fellow, Univ. of Mannheim, Germany) has written an important book. Much has been written about the role of Western NGOs in the transition of post-communist and noncommunist authoritarian nations to democracy, but a vacuum remains to be filled. This book begins to do so by focusing on one former communist country, Poland. The recipient of substantial Western aid aimed at promoting democracy and economic advance, Poland has pursued these goals externally by targeting its neighbors, two former Soviet republics, Belarus and Ukraine. The author details the origins, goals, and methods of Poland's NGO-centered aid programs, assessing their strengths and weaknesses and successes and failures. Poland's undertaking as an aid donor is bold, mostly quiet, and largely unnoticed, all the more impressive considering that Belarus remains under the sway of a harsh Stalinist leadership and Ukraine is racked by internal divisions playing out under the eye of its ever-menacing neighbor, Putinist Russia. Well-written and readable, the book will appeal mostly to specialists in foreign aid and in East European area studies. --Alvin Magid, SUNY at Albany
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
