Mark Palmer, who seems to come from the political center -- he was a Foreign Service officer who wrote speeches for Henry Kissinger and was ambassador to Hungary when it threw off Soviet control in 1989 -- builds on Ackerman and Duvall's work in "Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictatorships by 2025."

 Palmer agrees that "political systems that deny people their rights can best be taken apart from inside." But he also argues that outsiders -- including the United States -- can help.

 One ingredient in most cases of peaceful regime change has been "the judicious support of external allies, who gave money and training to the movements or denied commercial privileges and political approval to the regimes." Thus, Solidarity was aided by open support from Lane Kirkland's AFL-CIO and covert support orchestrated by the Reagan administration.

 Unfortunately, in Palmer's view, democratic leaders -- by implication, the Bush administration -- have not given much thought to how they can assist nonviolent change. Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley could make worse use of their spare leisure time than reading Palmer's specific suggestions.

 They might also want to take a look at Allen Hertzke's "Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights." This is an account of how leaders of different political views -- Reagan administration alumnus Michael Horowitz, evangelical Christians like Charles Colson and Jews like the liberal Rabbi David Saperstein -- have worked to protest the persecution of Christians in places like Sudan and China.

 There is plenty the United States can do, they argue, to undermine the legitimacy of oppressive regimes and to encourage nonviolent protest. Their latest success was passage of a North Korean Liberation Act in October, with provisions designed to spotlight that regime's persecution and oppression. (Interestingly enough, mainline Protestant churches, always ready to denounce Israel and other U.S. allies, showed little interest in joining this movement.)

 Encouraging nonviolent conflict is not as sure a means of removing a threatening dictatorship as military action, and no one can be sure just when or whether it will succeed. As Ackerman and Duvall show, regime collapse often occurs suddenly, and when least expected by experts. But that is no reason not to try.

 Palmer's world without dictatorships would be far safer for us than the world we live in today. The Bush administration should be working to bring it into existence.