Like many of my age whose worldview is shaped by the events of the late 1980s - from the brutal massacre of innocent protestors at Tiananmen Square to the fall of the Berlin Wall - I often believe hope and courage will overcome fear, ridding the world of the evil and the idiotic.

In December 1989, leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran rolled out the red carpet to welcome Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania’s last dictator, for a state visit. There was much applause and eulogy in Tehran, but the diplomatic decorum soon turned into nightmare when Ceausescu was executed by a firing squad after a secret military tribunal exactly one week later.