Bronislaw Geremek

Bronislaw Geremek is foreign minister of Poland. A medieval historian by training, he was a key advisor to Lech Wa~êsa from the earliest days of Solidarity, and spent over a year in prison during the period of martial law. He chaired the Committee for Political Reform during Solidarity’s 1989 “roundtable” talks with the leaders of Poland’s communist regime. From 1989 until his appointment as foreign minister in 1997, he was chairman of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Democracy after Communism

Is the challenge of building and consolidating democracy under postcommunist conditions unique, or can one apply lessons learned from other new democracies? The essays collected in this volume explore these questions, while tracing how the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have fared in the decade following the fall of communism.