i88 SEER, 8i I, I 2003 institutionalizing an acquiescent and state-supported Islamic establishment alongside the ruthlessrepressionof any populistIslamistmanifestations.Such a policy, though, creates the very conditions for the rise of a political Islam which it is supposedto prevent. This leads to the final dilemma which both these books indirectly raise. Akiner, looking at the internal fragilityand fissiparousnessof the Tajikstate, argues that only a more centralized and necessarily authoritarianstate can hope to deal with the complex problems of the country. Ro'i, looking from a more regionalperspective,highlightshow the existingauthoritarianleadersof the region undermine stabilitythroughruthlessrepressionand theirfailureto promote compromise and inclusion. Enlightenedauthoritarianismappearsto be in short supply in Central Asia. This suggests that more research needs to be focused on how political power might best be adapted and promoted in the region if the prophecies of Islamist-inducedinstabilityare not ultimately to be fulfilled. School ofSocialandPolitical Studies R. DANNREUTHER University ofEdinburgh Ghebali, Victor-Yves, and Warner, Daniel (eds). ne Operational Roleof the OSCEinSouth-Eastern Europe.Contributing toRegional Stability in theBalkans. Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 2001. xxi + 150 pp. Notes. Appendices. Index. /35.o0. THE Operational Role of the OSCEin South-Eastern Europeis a report of the proceedings of a conference by the same name. For anyone seeking to do researchinto the conflictpreventioneffortsof thisorganizationin the Balkans, the book is a crucial point of departure. It provides both information and analysisof effortsto bring some stabilityto a region that over the last decade has been torn by conflict. These relate not only to the OSCE itself,but other internationalorganizations linked to it, such as the UN, NATO and EU. In this respect, the book is not only a report of conflict prevention and management in the region, but also on the effort to build new institutional links of cooperation at the international level. While analysing conflict prevention in a particularregion, it also provides insight into post-Cold War effortsto weave the variousinstrumentsof the internationalcommunity into a 'seamlessweb of mutuallyreinforcingpracticalcooperation' (p. xi). The book consists of three parts, following the opening address and introductoryremarksto the conference. Part One provides status reports of the various OSCE field offices or missions, including those in East Slavonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. These focus primarilyon the challenges and successes of the differentpresences as they confronted local political forces in the area in the context of elections or peacebuilding or processes of democratization or human rights monitoring. The reportsare primarilywrittenby Ambassadorheads of the OSCE mission in the area and provideusefulhistoricaldocumentation of these efforts. Part Two, which is written primarilyby academics, includes analysis and critical assessment of the development of and potential for stability in REVIEWS I89 Southeast Europe. It focuses primarily on the management of the third YugoslavWar,the StabilityPactfor South-EastEurope and the i999 Istanbul Charter. These chapters grapple with problems related to institutional coordinationin the region, the relationshipbetween law, legitimacyand force, and the operationalization of normative principle, particularlyas this relates to preventativediplomacy. The evolution of the CSCE/OSCE dialogue since the Detente period, and the key role for low-key organizations such as the OSCE is also highlighted.The chaptersare among the most interestingof the book in so far as they analysethe largerimplicationsof this organizationboth past and future. Part Three includes a range of documents related to the analyses in Part Two, such as the Istanbul Summit Declaration (I999), the Charter of European Security(i 999) and the StabilityPact (i 999). The three complementary parts of the book provide an excellent point of access for scholars who seek information and analysis of the OSCE role in conflict prevention and peace building. If this was the main intention of the book, it has succeeded. However, the book is unlikelyto have much broader appeal, since it readslike a conference reportand the informationwill quickly become dated, given on-going changes in the region. Itsappealwill furtherbe limited by the lack of introduction to the broader context of the conference and its proceedings. After a short one-and-a-half-page forward about the purpose of the conference, the reader comes to the opening address and introductory remarks of the conference itself. While these provide useful background, the speeches were written for the audience participatingin the conference, rather than the potential...