"We are in the midst of the first world war of the twenty-first century, waged between the world of terror and the world of democracy, between a civilization in which human life is held in the highest value and one for which human life is merely an instrument to reach certain political aims. The world of democracy will win this struggle. But in order for the victory to be everlasting, it is crucial, but not sufficient, to destroy the terror. It is imperative to expand the world our enemies try to destroy, to export democracy."

-Natan Sharansky at AEI World Forum, June 20, 2002

Jailed for nine years in the USSR for challenging the Party line, Mr. Sharansky came to believe that the ability to express one’s views in public without fear is the truest meaning of democracy, and that democracy is essential to both the protection of human rights and the maintenance of global peace and security. In his new book, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror (PublicAffairs, November 2004), Mr. Sharansky explains why tyranny--whether in the Soviet Union or the Middle East--must bow before democracy.

Natan Sharansky serves as the minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora affairs in the Israeli government. He has also served Israel as deputy prime minister, minister of industry and trade, and minister of housing and construction. Born in the Ukraine, Mr. Sharansky was educated at the Physical Technical Institute in Moscow and became a prominent Soviet dissident in the years following the Helsinki Accords of 1975. Arrested and imprisoned in 1977, he was freed in 1986 and allowed to emigrate to Israel. He is the author of the prison memoir, Fear No Evil (Random House, 1988).

AEI is pleased to host Mr. Sharansky and Charles Krauthammer for a discussion of democracy as an essential component in the battle and victory against terrorism.