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I am grateful to everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this project. I learned a tremendous amount from foreign officials, other scholars and analysts, and, most especially, the unique perspective of local officials. I am immensely thankful that they took the time to meet with me and offer their expertise. I hope that the book is useful to my interlocutors and that anyone reading this book will appreciate the benefit of talking with researchers in the future.

I am also deeply appreciative of Roger Petersen, Barry Posen, and Fotini Christia for their encouragement, support, and honest feedback. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues who read the work and offered comments at multiple stages, especially Brendan Green, Alec Worsnop, Austin Long, Miranda Priebe, Joseph Torigian, Joshua Itzkowitz Shifrinson, Reo Matsuzaki, David Weinberg, Jon Lindsay, Sameer Lalwani, Kristin Fabbe, Nathan Cisneros, and Paul Staniland. Phil Haun offered feedback and assistance at a final, critical stage.

Funding from the Smith Richardson Foundation was critical to getting this book published, and, ten years ago, for supporting some of the original fieldwork for this project. Research fellowships from the US Institute for Peace, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the University of Southern California, and the International Studies Program at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs also made this project possible. Many individuals offered advice and suggestions on this project, and I would particularly like to thank Philippe Leroux-Martin, Louis-Alexandre Berg, Pellumb Kelmendi, Elton Skendaj, Patrick James, Jacques Hyman, Brian Rathbun, Diana O’Brien, Benjamin Graham, Steve Miller, Kelly Greenhill, Mark Waldman, Marisa Porges, Jill Goldenziel, Jonathan Markowitz, and Jenifer Keister.

I would also thank current and former colleagues from RAND who offered feedback, insight, and encouragement, including Lynn Davis, James Dobbins, Seth Jones, Chris Chivvis, Jonathan Blake, Elina Treyger, Irina Chindea, Abby Fanlo, Rachel Tecott, William Mackenzie, Rich Girven, Charlie Ries, Jack Riley, Olga Oliker, and Astrid Stuth Cevallos. Thanks as well to Rebecca Fowler, Agnes Schaefer, John Coughlan, Denis Flieder, and Michele Platt for helping bring this project to completion.

At Georgetown University Press, my thanks to Don Jacobs for taking an interest in the project and bringing this book to fruition. I also thank Elizabeth Crowley Webber for her care in overseeing the production of the final manuscript. And I very much appreciate the comments and suggestions from Roy Licklider and one anonymous reviewer.

I also could not have done this without the love and distraction provided by my daughters, Hattie and Freya. My wife, Sara, read endless drafts at all hours, made me explain myself, and gave me the support to keep going with this project. I cannot thank her enough. My mother, Miriam, kept cheering me on through good fortune and adversity.

I would like to dedicate this book to my father, Arthur, whom we greatly miss. His encouragement, culminating in the repeating question of “Where’s your book,” is an important reason why this volume exists today. I was inspired by his indefatigable intellectual curiosity, passion for clarity, and distaste for jargon, even if I did not always live up to these good qualities. Months before he unexpectedly passed away, he helped to proofread and correct a final draft. My one regret is that he will not get to see the finished product.