NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer-prize winning author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them
"A masterful guide to the new age of authoritarianism... clear-sighted and fearless.”—John Simpson, The Guardian
Especially timely."—The Washington PostWe think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the 21st century, there is so much more to it. Nowadays, autocracies work together, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies and kleptocrats in one country do business with corrupt companies and kleptocrats in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, diplomats band together to bend international rules, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.
Disapproval and sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don't stand a chance. The members of Autocracy, Inc, aren't linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, that can be defeated, but by a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity. In this urgent treatise, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fight a new kind of threat.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer-prize winning author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Economist, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Times
"A masterful guide to the new age of authoritarianism... clear-sighted and fearless.”—John Simpson, The Guardian
"Especially timely."—The Washington Post
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.
But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.
International condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don't stand a chance. The members of Autocracy, Inc, aren't linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity. In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan's essay calling for "containment" of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat.
