Professor Deletant teaches at the College of Europe in Natolin a course titled “Spies, Files”. The course will examine the Cold War through case studies of Soviet, American, and British spies, analyze memoirs written by these spies, and consider the impact of secret police files in demonstrating the extent of Communist state surveillance on citizens and foreign visitors.
Dennis Deletant is a Public Policy Fellow (from 6 September 2022) at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. He served as Visiting Ion Rațiu Professor of Romanian Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Washington DC from August 2011 to July 2020. He is Emeritus Professor of Romanian Studies at University College, London, where he taught in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, between 1969 and 2011, and was Professor of Romanian Studies at the University of Amsterdam (on secondment from UCL) between 2003 and 2010.
He was appointed to the board of the British Government’s ‘Know-How Fund for Central and Eastern Europe’ in 1990 and was actively involved in its work in Romania and in the Republic of Moldova until 1999 when the board was disbanded. The establishment of the Fund was influenced by the desire of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that Britain should play a leading role in helping the nations of the former Soviet bloc to make the transition from communism to democracy, through the transfer of expertise, economic and political. For his work on the Fund, he was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1995. He served as:
- CSCE (Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe) observer for Romanian parliamentary and presidential elections of May 1990 and September 1992, for local elections of February 1992.
- OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) observer in Romania for the parliamentary and presidential elections of November 1996, of November 2000, and of November/December 2005.
- Advisor to the Foreign Relations Committee of Moldovan Parliament on presentation of English-language material to international agencies including EC, Council of Europe, and United Nations, 1991-94.
- CSCE/OSCE non-governmental observer for the Moldovan Parliamentary Elections, Moldova, 25-28 February 1994, and March 1998
He was awarded Ordinul pentru merit (Order of Merit) with the rank of commander for services to Romanian democracy, on 1 December 2000 by President Emil Constantinescu of Romania and Steaua României (Star of Romania), Romania’s highest civilian honour, by President Klaus Iohannis on 26 October 2016 for his activity in the promotion of Romanian history, language and culture.
He hold honorary doctorates from the universities of Cluj, Constanța, Iași, Sibiu, and Târgu-Mureș.
He is the author of several monographs and volumes of studies on the recent history of Romania, among them Ceauşescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-89, London: Hurst & Co., 1995; New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996; Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948-65, London: Hurst & Co.; New York: St Martin's Press, 1999; Hitler’s Forgotten Ally. Ion Antonescu and his Regime, Romania, 1940-1944, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006; British Clandestine Activities in Romania during the Second World War, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016; and Romania under Communism: Paradox and Degeneration (Oxford; New York: Routledge, 2019). An autobiographical memoir, In Search of Romania (London: Hurst Publishers), was published in April 2022. His most recent study, Romania, 1916-1941 (Oxford; New York: Routledge) was published in July 2024.