Internal Security Services in Liberalizing States: Transitions, Turmoil, and (In)Security

Among the states that have moved from authoritarianism in the past 15 years, most have not moved beyond the mere procedures of democracy. They remain entrenched in a 'grey area' in which neither authoritarian nor democratic governance has been established, where incomplete transitions to democracy remain the procedural norm. Internal Security Services in Liberalizing States is an excellent scholarly resource focusing on democracy and its non-democratic institutions in an era of stalled liberalization. It provides a comparative account of the internal security situations of Morocco and Indonesia and makes a significant contribution to the fields of comparative politics, including comparative democratization, intelligence and politics, international security and terrorism, as well as to courses on Morocco, the Maghreb and the Middle East, Islam, and Indonesia and Asia. The volume covers a considerable range of themes and is a thought-provoking resource for those who recognize the importance of incorporating major institutional actors in the course of political liberalization.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Chapter 1 Democratization and the Internal Security Services; Chapter 2 Commander of the Faithful; Chapter 3 Indonesia’s Intelligence and Security Services; Chapter 4 Reforming the Security Sector;

About the Author :
Lt Col Joseph L. Derdzinski is Chief of the Comparative Politics Division, United States Air Force Academy, USA.

Review :
'This is an important book on an important subject. What happens to internal security services in liberalizing regimes is one of the key predictors of whether or not democracy will be successfully consolidated - yet it remains an under-studied subject. Derdzinski's meticulously researched, engagingly written, and convincingly argued study fills an important void in the literature and deserves the attention of students, scholars, policy-makers, and the broader public.' Zoltan Barany, University of Texas at Austin, USA 'A fascinating exploration of how internal security forces pose a dilemma for nascent democracies. These institutions are often illiberal, being steeped in secrecy, violence, and the ability to act above the law, yet most needed by the state during the violence-prone transition to democracy. A great contribution to the study of democratization and its problems.' Michael Freeman, Naval Postgraduate School, USA '...constitutes an important contribution to the literatures of both democratisation and intelligence studies. The genuinely comparative analysis of two Islamic countries provides insights into the key question of how internal security services may be reformed in an era of "stalled liberalization" and in the face of political violence.' Peter Gill, University of Salford, UK