is a political scientist, mainly concerned with the European political order under communism and post-communism. He is Professor of Politics at the University of Maryland, and is director of the University’s Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies. Since 2007 he has chared the Presidential Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania. Tismaneanu is the editor in chief of the journal East European Politics and Societies. He wrote many books, such as Reinventing Politics: Eastern Europe from Stalin to Havel (1994), Fantasies of Salvation: Nationalism, Democracy, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe (1998), Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism (2003). He was a co-author of World Order After Leninism (2006). Tismaneanu wrote essays for Nexus 40, 50 en 53. [041209]