Natan Sharansky is among the world's most consistent advocates of democratization as a basis for foreign policy. Born in Ukraine in 1948, he received a degree in mathematics from Moscow's Physical Technical Institute. A brilliant mathematician and chess master, he entered the limelight as a spokesman for the movement to emancipate Soviet Jewry. Arrested by the Soviet authorities in 1977 for his refusenik activities, he was sentenced to thirteen years imprisonment. President Ronald Reagan interceded and, in 1986, won Sharansky's release as part of an East-West prisoner exchange. In his 1988 autobiography Fear No Evil,[1] he discussed both his emotional resistance to surrender in the face of KGB interrogation and also his quest to explore his Jewish roots.

Freed from Soviet imprisonment, Sharansky received a hero's welcome in Israel. Dedicating himself as an activist for free Soviet emigration, he became increasingly active among Israel's Russian immigrant population. In 1995, he founded Yisrael B'Aliyah in order to represent this important demographic. He subsequently served in a number of positions, including minister of industry and trade, minister of housing and construction and, most recently, as deputy prime minister.

He is currently minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora affairs in the cabinet of Ariel Sharon. His new book, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror,[2] was published in November 2004. On November 11, President George W. Bush invited Sharansky to the Oval Office for an hour-long discussion of the book.[3] Sam Spector, research analyst at the Long-Term Strategy Project, interviewed him in Jerusalem by telephone on November 24, 2004.