Fatos Tarifa is the former Albanian Ambassador to the United States and currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Eastern Michigan University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His most recent books include The Balkans: A Mission Neither Accomplished Nor Impossible; The Quest for Legitimacy and the Withering Away of Utopia; Breakdown of State Socialism and the Emerging Post-Socialist Order.