Authors in the News: Anne Applebaum on Stability vs. Freedom

In a recent Washington Post piece, New Threats contributor Anne Applebaum tackles a dicey issue: our freedom-espousing leaders have been hesitant to really embrace popular freedom movements becuase these movements pose a risk upsetting a stable status quo, which could have a negative impact on the world economy. She writes:

Politicians like stability. Bankers like stability. But the "stability" we have so long embraced in the Arab world wasn't really stability. It was repression. The dictators we have supported, or anyway tolerated - the Zine el-Abidine Ben Alis, the Hosni Mubaraks, the various kings and princes - have stayed in power by preventing economic development, silencing free speech, keeping tight control of education and above all by stamping down hard on anything resembling civil society.

So what are we to do with our dictatorial allies? Applebaum makes some very interesting suggestions later in her article that are worth checking out.