Radek Sikorski, a snappily dressed Polish citizen who speaks English better than most Americans, heads the New Atlantic Initiative, a project that encourages free trade between the U.S. and the European Union, military cooperation, and strengthening of the new democracies in central Europe. Prior to arriving at the American Enterprise Institute earlier this year Sikorski traveled with the mujahedin in Afghanistan, wrote two well-received books, and served as deputy defense minister in one of Poland's first post Communist governments. He later served as Poland's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He hasn't yet celebrated his fortieth birthday. Sikorski is married to prominent British journalist Anne Applebaum, author of the forthcoming book The Gulag. One of his personal projects has been restoring a Polish manor house called Chobielin.

TAE: How long did it take you to buy Chobielin?

SIKORSKI: Years and years. It was instill-communist Poland then. We were one of the first families to do something with the intention of restoring a piece of Polish culture. The house and the land it sat on cost $1,200, the value of a small car (which was a great luxury then). It was a ruin, of course. My goal was to return it to a state where people would say, "Gosh, somehow communism didn't penetrate to this remote place, and this thing was saved." You want to feel rooted in the land, and there we do.

TAE: Are Poles beginning to think of themselves as part of Western Europe?

SIKORSKI: We feel we never left Western Europe. We were wrenched out of Western Europe by Stalin and the Red Army with the cooperation of the allies; a tragedy. Politically, the Second World War ended for us in the 1990s. That was when we rejoined the family of nations we feel we've always belonged to. Western European culture without Chopin or Copernicus is unimaginable. Poland was a democracy in the eighteenth century when absolute monarchy was the fashion of the day.

TAE: What are your thoughts on the European Union?

SIKORSKI: The E.U. needs to become more transparent, it needs to become more democratic. It needs to clearly define the responsibilities of nation states and of the central E.U. government. Many people are afraid of ever-closer union, that we will integrate until we are all identical Europeans. We don't want that. Countries should remain independent.

TAE: What pitfalls should Poland avoid as it enters the E.U.?

SIKORSKI: To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, "Having done away with socialism at home, we don't want it imposed from Brussels." Poland is now a country with a market economy. We do not need another revolution.

TAE: Are you concerned about the anti- U.S. rhetoric that's going on in the highest levels of the E.U.?

SIKORSKI: Sure I am. It's something we have to pay attention to. But some of it is just rhetoric. I don't think there are fundamental differences of interest between Europe and the U.S. There may be differences of phase--for instance, America has been attacked viciously by Islamic extremists, while Europe hasn't had a September 11, yet.

TAE: As someone who has spent time in Afghanistan, what do you see as the possibilities that a reasonably democratic regime will emerge there?

SIKORSKI: Democracy is a tough business in a country that is so diverse ethnically, where so few people have basic education, where so few people are part of the owning class. Yet there are democratic traditions in Afghanistan--in a village the Emir will receive petitioners in public. That may not be democracy, but at least it is open government. What should be established is a good federal constitution that gives rights to particular religious and ethnic groups wherever they live. It would be a disaster to try to create a strongly centralized government in Kabul. You want the government in Kabul to represent the country abroad, to create a modern integrated army and police force, and to distribute foreign aid. The ethnic groups should do the rest.

TAE: Is there a chance that radical Islamists could take over a new Afghan government?

SIKORSKI: Yes there is. But there are some we can work with. People like assassinated Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. He would come to a village and say things like, "The prophet, blessed be he, has said that you must go as far as China in search of knowledge. Therefore, we must build schools." He saw Islam as defining life, but also wanted to modernize the country.