SAIS Review

BOOK REVIEWS Joanna Pineda, editor Biberaj, Elez, Albania: A Socialist Maverick ...................... 200 Blaker, James R., United States Overseas Basing: An Anatomy ofa Dilemma ................................ 201 Garthoff, Raymond L., Deterrence and the Revolution in Soviet Military Doctrine ................................ 203 Haggard, Stephen, Pathways from the Periphery: The Politics of Growth in the Newly-Industrializing Countries ..... 205 Kirkpatrick, Jeane J., The Withering Away of the Totalitarian State...and Other Surprises ...................... 207 Lewis, Stephen R., The Economics ofApartheid .................... 209 Liska, George, The Ways of Power: Pattern and Meaning in World Politics ....................... 211 Lockwood, Lee, Castro's Cuba, Cuba's Fidel....................... 213 Melville, Andrei and Lapidus, Gail W., eds., The Glasnost Papers: Voices on Reform from Moscow ............ 215 Morici, Peter, ed., Making Free Trade Work: The Canada-U.S. Agreement .............................. 216 Ostry, Sylvia, Governments and Corporations in a Shrinking World: Trade and Innovation Policies in the United States, Europe, and Japan ................................................ 217 Payne, Richard R., The Nonsuperpowers and South Africa: Implications for U.S. Policy ............................... 220 Porter, Michael, The Competitive Advantage ofNations .............. 221 Serfaty, Simon, ed., The Media and Foreign Policy ................. 222 Stedman, Stephen John, Peacemaking in Civil War: International Mediation in Zimbabwe 1974-1980 ............... 225 Wolpert, Stanley, India ...................................... 227 199 200 SAISREVIEW Albania: A Socialist Maverick. By Elez Biberaj. Boulder: Westview Press, 1990. Reviewed by Capt. Stephen Williams, M.A. Candidate, SAIS. Writing about contemporary communist European states has proved a difficult endeavor in the last two years as the Soviet communist grip on East Europe has loosened. Elez Biberaj's Albania: A Socialist Maverick, finished before the summer of 1990, seems to be another victim of rapidly changing times. If written just nine months later, the book could have been better titled The Fall of Europe's Last Communist Domino instead ofA Socialist Maverick. To classify Biberaj's book as "outdated" would discredit his excellent survey of post-war Albania, which remains applicable. In just over 130 pages, one gains an appreciation for Europe's most reclusive country. Albania has been slow to follow the 1989 revolutions ofEastern Europe for many reasons. Most importantly , Albania has never experienced freedom or democracy. From centuries of domination by the Romans and then the Ottomans, Albania has, until late in this century, been a pawn in the hands of powerful adversaries and neighbors. This has created a deep—rooted xenophobia which drives Albania's domestic and foreign policy. Albania received its independence in 1912 after the Balkan Wars as a "rump state," with more Albanians living outside its borders than inside. The two World Wars wreaked havoc on the new country, which was repeatedly invaded. After World War I, a communist regime followed King Zog's tyrannic rule as a result of a civil war in the late 1940s. The leader of the Albanian communists, Enver Hoxha, became Albania's Stalin. Hoxha constructed a model Stalinist centralized state. The communist party, the Albanian Party of Labor (APL), ruled by terror, force, and isolation. A weak alliance with Yugoslavia ended when Tito and Stalin split. The Albanians remained a quasi-Soviet satellite until 1961, when Khrushchev criticized Stalin. A search for a staunch Marxist ally led to an alliance with China until 1978, when China moved toward the West and the USSR. Hoxha then declared his state the only true Marxist state and turned to increased collectivization and autarchy. Long after the destructive policies of Stalin were discredited, Hoxha continued to espouse Stalinist practices until his death in 1985. Post-war Albanian history can be divided into three phases. Biberaj covers the first two—Hoxha's era and his successor Ramiz Alia's tenure—by outlining Albania's government and politics, economy, people, and foreign policy. A chapter is devoted to each of these topics. The third phase began with the occupation of embassies in Tirana in the summer of 1990 and the subsequent exodus of hundreds of Albanians. The iron grip of Hoxha's regime, its massive human rights violations, and its isolation have weakened the regime faster than Alia' reforms could bolster it. Student riots and protests grew. This most youthful of European states (average age is 26) grew tired of its closed repressive society. Alia was forced to agree to multi-party elections in early 1991...