Autocracy, Inc.

by Anne Applebaum

All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like, with a bad man at the top. But in the 21st century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another—and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group doesn’t operate like a bloc, but rather like an agglomeration of Autocracy, Inc. Their relations are not based on values, but are rather transactional, which is why they operate so easily across ideological, geographical, and cultural lines. In truth, they are in full agreement about only one Their dislike of us, the inhabitants of the democratic world, and their desire to see both our political systems and our values undermined. That shared understanding of the world—where it comes from, why it lasts, how it works, how the democratic world has unwittingly helped to consolidate it, and how we can help bring it down—is the subject of this book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Audiobook, Political Science, Society, Russia

224 pages, Hardcover

First published July 23, 2024

About the author

Anne Elizabeth Applebaum is a Polish-American journalist and writer. She has written extensively about Marxism–Leninism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She has worked at The Economist and The Spectator, and was a member of the editorial board of The Washington Post.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of an autocratic state. There is a bad man at the top. He controls the army and the police. The army and police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the twenty-first century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services—military, paramilitary, police—and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda and disinformation. The member of these networks are connected not only to one another within a given autocracy, but also to networks in other autocratic countries, and sometimes in democracies too.

--------------------------------------

A world in which autocracies work together to stay in power, work together to promote their system, and work together to damage democracies is not some distant dystopia. That world is the one we are living in right now.

In the 1979 film When a Stranger Calls, Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) is on the worst baby-sitting gig ever, terrorized by a psychopathic killer. The most famous line of the film takes place when the police inform her that the most recent threatening call is from inside the house. In the battle between democracy and autocracy the same can be said for those who support Western values as we face manipulation, money-laundering, foreign influence in our political life, and many more challenges, not only from abroad, but from within our countries.


Anne Applebaum - image from her site

In Autocracy, Inc. Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer-prize-winning author, columnist at The Atlantic and contributor to many other publications, paints a picture of the world that is a far cry from our bi-polar East-West, Communist-Capitalist view of international relations. Iran’s theocracy shares few elements with North Korean totalitarianism, Russian autocracy, or China’s international bribery-and-control-via-development-capital program spreading across the planet. But the leaders of all these nations, as well as many more noted here, share a desire to remain in power. That power is typically used to enrich themselves and their cronies at the expense of their own populations. When you get big enough, you can steal all you want, particularly if you have the power to stomp on anyone who objects.

The point of the book is that dark forces have not been softened by exposure to democracies. The flow of values from West to East that was expected after the Berlin Wall fell has been rich with backwash, as an illiberal infestation and its corresponding rampant corruption has spread to the West.

[back in the 1990s] we had this illusion that our system was so strong that anybody could come and play around in it and it wasn’t ever going to affect us. And it didn’t really matter what happened over there in Russia because it was so far away, and they’re so weak now they can never affect us and they don’t matter anymore and we’re really interested in other things now. And that was the mistake. What we did was enabled the growth of what’s now a real security threat to us and to other Europeans. We know it was a mistake and now it’s time to backtrack and change it. - from the Tortoise interview

Autocracy is the question. Democracy is the answer. Every autocratic nation generates its dissenters, those who recognize their shackles and seek to break free of them. It has been the case that once truth, the scent of denied freedoms and awareness of outrageous greed by leaders gains a grip in such countries, there will be the possibility of revolt. The color revolutions may not have all been successful, but they do show a way forward in domestic challenges to criminal administrations.

If people are naturally drawn to the image of human rights, to the language of democracy, to the dream of freedom, then those ideas have to be poisoned. That requires not just surveillance, and not merely a political system that defends against liberal ideas. It also requires an offensive plan, a narrative that damages the idea of democracy, wherever it is being used, anywhere in the world.

This requires, of course, that autocracies stifle any meaningful dissent inside their own borders. But crushing domestic opposition is not limited to the autocratic homeland. Russia, in particular, seems fond of extending that carnage to nations in which dissidents have sought refuge, murdering their own people abroad.

Freedom of the press in these autocracies means the freedom to write or broadcast whatever the local administration has cleared. (See Trump asking Murdoch to stop broadcasting ads that criticize him. In a Trump 2.0 he would not be asking.) It also means that disinformation has become government sanctioned-and-or-produced propaganda that calls into question the very values that could undermine their control.

The manipulation of the strong emotions about gay rights and feminism has been widely copied throughout the autocratic world. Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda for more than three decades, also passed an “anti-homosexuality” bill in 2014, instituting a life sentence for gay couples who marry and criminalizing the “promotion” of a homosexual lifestyle. By picking a fight over gay rights, he was able to consolidate his supporters at home while neutralizing foreign criticisms of his regime. He accused democracies of “social imperialism”; “Outsiders cannot dictate to us; this is our country,” he declared. Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, an illiberal hybrid state, also ducks discussion of Hungarian corruption by hiding behind a culture war.

Sound familiar? Leveraging wedge issues and appealing to bigotry is part and parcel of the autocratic approach. Consider campaign ads in the USA that target immigrants and transgender people.

As is usually the case with sociopolitical analysis books, it is one thing to describe the problem, and quite another thing to offer solutions. One feature of this system that Applebaum points out is that one can buy property anonymously in Western nations. This allows kleptocrats to hide their wealth in safe investments. She cites some instances, mostly in the purchase of real estate, and failing companies. It is usual for there to be several shell companies layered between the name on the bill-of-sale and the actual purchaser. Why is this allowed? It makes countries that allow this practice money-laundering centers, keeping the people of the relevant states from knowing just how much their leaders are stealing. It also drives up prices for everyone else. (See property costs in London and New York.) But do we really think that there are any governments with the courage to insist on sunlight for such transactions? I suppose we can hope, and dream.

While the analysis is quite eye-opening, there is little here about how to cope, for example, with the anti-democracy cyber war Russia is waging on the United States and other Western democracies. Twitter has already been transformed into a propaganda machine. Maybe this is what Nikita Khruschev meant when he said, "We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within." Or Lenin, who wrote “When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.” Where there is a profit to be made there is usually a traitor to be found.

It is certainly clear that we are facing massive challenges from actors and nations that seek to undermine our values, planting disinformation in order to create and exploit cultural differences, and taking advantage of our Byzantine national and international legal systems to hide their ill-gotten gains in our countries. They are unspeakable to their own citizens, stifling all meaningful forms of politicking, and trying their best to undermine the values that could actually threaten their control. Applebaum has painted a dark portrait of the world in which we live. It remains uncertain if there are national actors willing to shine some cleansing sunlight on the hidden practices that feed autocrats around the world. New laws can help, but who will vote to pass them? Autocracy, Inc. is a remarkable analysis of a frightening and spreading global problem. Hostile forces seek to undermine our financial and political systems. We are on the receiving end of a threatening call, and it is being made from inside our own house.

Around the world, democratic activists, from Moscow to Hong Kong to Caracas, have been warning us that our industries, our economic policies, and our research efforts are enabling the economic, and even the military aggression of others, and they are right.

Review posted - 10/25/24

Publication dates
----------Hardcover - 7/23/24
----------Trade paperback - 8/26/25



This review will soon be cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi!

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to Applebaum’s personal, Twitter and FB pages

Check out her personal site. It offers a cornucopia of her writings

Profile – from her site

Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the SNF Agora Institute.
She was a Washington Post columnist for more than fifteen years and a member of the editorial board. She has also worked as the Foreign and Deputy Editor of the Spectator magazine in London, and as a columnist at Slate as well as the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs.

Interviews
-----Deutsche Welle - Anne Applebaum: Combative and eloquent - video – 3:06
-----* Tortoise ThinkIn - Anne Applebaum on the dictators who want to run the world - video – 56:27
-----The Belfer Center of the Kennedy Center at Harvard - Conversations in Diplomacy: Anne Applebaum with Nicholas Burns – Audio – 12:47

My review of Applebaum’s prior book
-----2020 - Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

Items of Interest from the author
-----Washington Post - A list of her opinion pieces for WaPo
-----The Atlantic - A list of her pieces for The Atlantic

Items of Interest
-----International Center on Nonviolent Conflict - From Dictatorship to Democracy - full text
-----Madeleine Albright - Fascism: A Warning
-----David Frum - Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
-----Rick Wilson - Running Against the Devil
-----Michael Cohen - Disloyal
-----The Hill - Trump says Fox shouldn’t air negative ads - BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO
-----Time - Ex-Spy Sergei Skripal Is Just the Latest Russian Dissident to Meet Tragedy on British Soil by Flora Carr
-----Wikipedia - Cyberwarfare by Russia
-----NY Times - 12/27/24 - Enforcement of Anti-Money-Laundering Law Blocked After Court Reversal - A major roadblock to making corporations reveal their ownership will only secure the dark anonymity about which Applebaum warns

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dedication page of Autocracy, Inc. says "For the Optimists", but there are likely to be fewer of them after people read this book. Anne Applebaum deftly describes how autocrats around the world rob their citizens of their wealth, control information and narrative, discredit and smear opposition, and are changing the international order away from enforcement of human rights. But the big emphasis of this book is how autocracies and their witting and unwitting allies in democracies work together (hence the Inc. of the title) to make this happen - making for very strange bedfellows (e.g. Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe, Russia and China).

Ultimately, it's the specific examples of how this happens that will draw the reader in; I'd give a few, but I'm trying to keep this review short.

It's clear that autocratic impulses are spreading like a contagion, and the epilogue (subtitled "Democrats United") suggests that democratic nations and democratic opposition leaders must unite to oppose the autocratic behavior in both democratic and non-democratic nations. I agree that this must be done, but it sounds like a heavy lift. One aspect of autocracies that Applebaum emphasizes is that they no longer want to convert us to their ideology; their aim is to just turn us into cynics. Perhaps my own pessimism means I too am falling into the trap set by "Autocracy, Inc."

It may be hard to tell from this review, but this book is highly recommended. It reads like an extended magazine article and can easily be read in two evenings, but at the end of each evening you may feel like stopping at the liquor cabinet before going to bed. Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for providing me a copy for early review. As the first reviewer on Goodreads, I hope I've done the book justice.

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2024
Applebaum, a historian, is one of the foremost researchers and writers on authoritarian systems, so a field of expertise that is becoming more and more important by the second (did Trump really just hand out a ministry called DOGE to Elon fucking Musk?!). As someone who hails from a country that has been politically divided during the Cold War, I can experience the conflicts brought about by the rise of authoritarianism in the post-Soviet states on a daily basis, as they manifest in the federal states in East Germany. In the far West, you know: the orange menace, and right behind the Western border 5 minutes from my house, the Rassemblement National is propagating an ultra-nationalist agenda. What a shit show for every lover of democracy.

In her book, Applebaum shows how 21st century autocrats have established international networks that help them to gain and maintain power, many of them fostered by globalization and digitalization: International investment routes, internet bots and the information war, surveillance capitalism, erosion of trust in democratic institutions, you name it. The author ponders many countries particularly affected, from China to Russia, from Syria and Zimbabwe, from Turkey to Hungary. The autocrats are connected, they play in teams when it comes to destabilizing what was formerly known as "the West".

But due to the wide scope of the short book, it's important to manage expectations: Many things stated here will not come as a surprise to people who follow politics and are interested in current events. Still, elections like the recent one in the US reveal how many people seem to be uninformed about how the digital information society works, and what they can and should accept as decent journalism in order to be able to protect their own interests, so books like these are certainly worthwhile.

No groundbreaking research, but very well-written, easy to grasp for laymen and delivering important truths. Now it's up to the democratic states to stick together, build up more effective defenses and resilience, and stand strong.

[Helen Varley · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was a bit disappointing. while it's well-written, readable, and contains important information, i found it a bit light on many aspects. particularly troubling was the glaring ommission of capitalism and its role in kleptocracy and autocracy. the examples of autocratic regimes are almost all communist or socialist states. applebaum seems to equate democracy with capitalism, although she doesn't state this directly, and barely touches on the trump presidency as an autocratic turn. in her view, autocrats' primary goal is to maintain power, and yes they are also kleptocratic, but the clear connection between maintaining political power and enhancing personal wealth is not very deeply explored.

the final section, like many of these kinds of books, aims to give hope - that this is a situation that we can change through uniting democracies. however any concrete actions she identifies are for goverments, diplomats and those already in positions of power to take. there is little that's useful for the ordinary person other than to hope for regulation and true democracy (which most "democracies" don't have anyway, as they are controlled by corporations - that are also autocratic).

her analysis of the power of disinformation and media manipulation is good, but again her solutions are rather despairing: journalists "need to work with lawyers and sanctions advocates to ensure their investigations lead to punishment"? aren't they already doing that to the best of their ability, and in the face of all kinds of tactics from the bad actors? "Truth has to be seen to lead to justice" ? unfortunately we now live in a world where words like "truth" and "justice" have been co-opted and warped by those whose realities are a million miles away from actual truth and justice, so such a sentence is meaningless.

one point i do find relevant and worthy of further explanation is her argument that "many people desire disinformation. They are attracted by conspiracy theories and will not necessarily seek out reliable news at all." however rather than unpack this further, she goes on to give more detail about how successfully information is being manipulated, and can only offer improvements to laws and regulations as a solution. i agree, we do need better laws and regulations, but we know that these can always be circumvented, changed, watered-down or simply ignored and broken. what's more the technology is developing so much faster than the wheels of regulation turn - governments are still struggling to get their heads around social media and already AI is running rampant.

but i digress. to conclude, the book is an easy read that draws together some of the big baddies of the world and will no doubt be useful and informative for many.

[Nata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should belong to the horror section tbh

[Khan · Rating 1 out of 5]

“A one-star rating for a book condemning autocrats by a Pulitzer-winning author? Wow, fuck this guy.”

I know how this looks—who could possibly be against someone standing up for liberal Western values?

But Autocracy, Inc. isn’t just a critique of authoritarian regimes; it’s a representation of Washington’s foreign policy establishment—an establishment that has failed for over 40 years. It preaches democracy and liberal values abroad while insulating itself from the very democratic principles it claims to uphold. The U.S. foreign policy apparatus routinely ignores voters’ interests, spending trillions on endless wars that haven’t made us safer or spread democracy. That money could have been used to fund healthcare, education, and housing at home.

Applebaum’s central thesis is that the West defends democracy and international law while authoritarian states—China, Iran, and Russia—spread autocracy, supplying dictators with weapons, surveillance tools, and financial aid while destabilizing democratic societies through misinformation. But the hypocrisy in this argument is glaring, and her omissions are intentional.

The Biggest Flaw in Her Argument: Israel and Gaza

Applebaum conveniently ignores the West’s support for Israel’s apartheid policies. For decades, the U.S. has armed and funded Israel while calling it “the only democracy in the Middle East”—a claim that crumbles under scrutiny. Palestinians are denied equal rights, unable to walk the same roads, access the same water, or live free from military occupation. Israel has systematically expanded its territory into the West Bank, Syria, Northern Gaza, and Lebanon, directly violating the rules-based international order Applebaum claims the West upholds.

Her silence on this contradiction is deafening. She condemns Iran and Hamas for disregarding international law but fails to mention that Israeli leaders are currently under criminal prosecution for crimes against humanity in Gaza. With every hospital in Gaza now destroyed, how can anyone claim the West applies its values consistently? If the U.S. truly upheld democratic principles, it would impose sanctions on Israel and suspend arms sales. Instead, it does the opposite.

Free Speech and Propaganda: The West’s Hypocrisy

Applebaum argues that autocratic states suppress free speech and spread propaganda—true. But the U.S. is one of the most propagandized societies in the world.

Turn on any major American news network, and you won’t find a single Palestinian voice. No mainstream outlet will call Israel an apartheid state, and when a journalist dared to, she lost her job. Students protesting U.S. military aid to Israel have been subjected to police crackdowns, doxxing, and threats to their futures. Congress has even passed bills conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism to silence dissent. Is this what Applebaum calls “Western values”?

This isn’t new. The same media that now claims moral high ground over Russian and Chinese propaganda was the same media that pushed the Iraq War, parroting intelligence agency lies to justify a catastrophic invasion that killed hundreds of thousands. Is that Western democracy?

Surveillance and Julian Assange

Applebaum acknowledges that the U.S. engages in mass surveillance but argues that unlike autocracies, it allows for whistleblowers like Edward Snowden to expose abuses. Conveniently, she ignores Julian Assange.

Assange spent over a decade in isolation—first under house arrest, then in a prison cell—for exposing U.S. war crimes. Unlike Snowden, no journalist from Applebaum’s beloved Western press stood up for him. His persecution proves that in the West, press freedom exists only within acceptable boundaries.

The U.S. and Dictatorship: A Long History of Supporting Autocracy
Applebaum condemns China, Russia, and Iran for propping up dictators, but either she doesn’t know U.S. history or she’s hoping her readers don’t. For 75 years, the U.S. has armed and funded dictators worldwide—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran (under the Shah), Chile, and countless others. Democratically elected leaders have been overthrown in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, all because it’s easier to control a country’s resources through a dictator than through a free population.

Applebaum also decries disinformation campaigns by autocratic states but ignores the U.S.’s own. In 2021, the U.S. government deliberately spread false information in the Philippines to undermine trust in China’s COVID-19 vaccines, putting lives at risk for geopolitical gain. Does that sound like liberal democracy to you?

The Real Threat to Democracy: Neoliberalism, Not Autocracy
If given the choice, of course I’d rather live in the U.S. than under an authoritarian regime. But the point isn’t about defending China or Russia—it’s about exposing the hypocrisy of selective Western values.

Applebaum’s view is dangerous because it presents the U.S. as a savior of democracy when, in reality, democracy is eroding within the West itself. Money in politics ensures that the poorest Americans have virtually no electoral influence. Corporate lobbyists dictate policy, leaving voters disillusioned and powerless. If democracy is in decline, it’s not because of Russia or China—it’s because Western elites have made it clear that their version of democracy is a facade.

At first, I thought Autocracy, Inc. would examine how democracy erodes from within—how both parties serve corporate interests, how politicians do the bidding of the donor class. That would have been a much more interesting book. Instead, Applebaum sticks to the tired Cold War narrative of a noble West fighting against the evils of autocracy.


Look at Western leadership at the start of the 2010s—Obama, Trudeau, Merkel, Macron. Now look at the backlash against them. Neoliberalism has failed globally, and this failure has fueled both left-wing and right-wing populist uprisings. Without real economic justice, democracy cannot function. If Western values were truly about democracy, they would challenge the concentration of power in the hands of a few oligarchs.

Instead, Applebaum picks and chooses when to apply her “principles,” using them as a weapon when they serve the West’s interests and ignoring them when they don’t.

1 star.

[Ярослава]

Корисний огляд того, як недемократичні режими цілого світу об'єднуються в дуже надійну мережу інформаційної, політичної й економічної взаємопідтримки, часом у дуже химерних к��мбінаціях (скажімо, що б могли мати спільного Іран і Венесуела? більше, ніж ви думаєте) - за потурання і повного пофігізму західних демократій, які зацікавлені тільки в економічній вигоді, і чомусь вдають, наче це вони змінять на краще недемократичні режими внаслідок економічних відносин, а не, навпаки, узалежняться від людожерів і самі стануть такими ж. Починається з абсолютно провальної німецької політики "змін через торгівлю" з совком, а потім і Росією (і урвалася ця політика не внаслідок якогось світоглядного переосмислення, а тільки з підривом труб Північного Потоку), і триває до повної залежності умовного демократичного світу від Китаю.

При цьому частина "як рятувати становище" абсолютно провальна і написана з рефреном "авторка облизує Навального так, що дивитися непристойно" - а давайте активісти будуть розслідувати корупцію, і тоді всім стане добре! Але ми ж емпірично бачимо, що розслідування не рятують становища, санкції діряві, як сито, а корупція в багатьох випадках далеко не найбільша проблема (не клептократія робить Іран людожерською хуйнею, не клепктократія робила совок людожерською хуйнею; демократичні credentials Навального, знов-таки, завжди були менш переконливі, ніж його антикорупційні credentials; і т.д., і т.і.). Коротше, загальне враження лишається таке, що треба повзти в помиральну яму, бо на заході ялові імпотенти, які здатні тільки на красиві гасла.

[Tim Null · Rating 4 out of 5]

Autocracy Inc. discussed (a) how autocratic leaders have historically come to power, and (b) what efforts have been successfully used to resist autocratic leaders.

Theme: Democracies shouldn't think in terms of a struggle between autocratic and democratic nation states, but rather as this being an effort to promote democratic behaviors and discourage autocratic ones.

Quotes:

"..., almost no one spoke about the political impact on Western democracies. Everyone assumed that in a more open, interconnected world, democracy and liberal ideas would spread to the autocratic states. Nobody imagined that autocracy and illiberalism would spread to the democratic world instead."

"...autocracies keep track of one another's defeats and victories, timing their own moves to create maximum chaos."

[Callum's Column · Rating 4 out of 5]

Autocracy, Inc. is an apt label for the global network of autocracies that support each other to maintain power and undermine democracies. Support can be explicit like economic or military aid or implicit by not criticising their authoritarian governance structures. Democracies are undermined through military force, disinformation campaigns, and crushing of local dissidents. Primary actors include Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran, etc. Post-Cold War events have debunked modernisation theory. Instead, it is autocracies that are changing naïve democracies, with kleptocratic regimes taking advantage of legal loopholes to skirt international sanctions.

Anne Applebaum succinctly, forthrightly and compellingly argues the case of Autocracy, Inc. in this eponymously titled book. Her analysis focuses primarily on events in the last decade when the ascendance of global democratisation reached its zenith and has since begun to decline. Applebaum weaves together examples of many different countries and emphasises her points with powerful personal stories within those countries. While the book is a sobering read, Applebaum reminds the reader that the tide can be turned—use the strength of democratic institutions worldwide to counter autocrats and tighten laws to disable their ability to launder money and goods in the West.

The ability to counter autocracies is made harder when an aspiring autocrat like Donald Trump is re-elected and is financed by the world's richest person, Elon Musk. Trump openly admires leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Victor Orban, and Musk appears to only have loyalty to his own business interests and not that of his adopted country. America's political institutions kept Trump in relative check during his first term, but its legal institutions have been inept at keeping Trump accountable for his insurrection and blatant undermining of democracy. It is a worrying time internationally, but I retain faith in the American experiment and the triumph of democracy.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short and very much to-the-point book which should serve as a wake-up call not only for America but for all democracies. As Anne Applebaum points out, we face dictatorships--or autocracies, as she prefers to call them--which are increasingly working together and with increasing effectiveness. While, naturally, there are differences among them--Putin's Russia, Xi's China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and others--they have one overriding goal--to undermine democracy and exert their power around the globe.
They seek to not only keep control over their own populations (and crush all dissent) but also spread their influence into the democracies. Especially in the cases of Russia and China, there are oligarchs who have created a web of financial structures increasing their wealth and power around the world as they are supported by their states.
Propagandists who are experts in the use of social media spread the message in Latin America, Africa , and Asia that democracy is weak and a failure- and that authoritarian government is the answer to the people's problems. One thing Russia, China, Iran and the others all agree on completely is that America is evil and its example is certainly not one to follow. It goes without saying that these propagandists have been hard at work spreading their message in the Western democracies, including America. They seek to undermine trust in democratic institutions, especially casting doubt on the democratic election system being free and fair. Russia, especially, has created links to far-right groups in Germany, Britain, and the rest of Western Europe, and also in America.
Applebaum makes the case that democracy is facing a severe crisis on a global scale. We have to understand what is going on and take concerted action or we will lose the democracy we thought we had saved by winning two world wars and the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
As for myself, I knew a lot about what Applebaum was writing about. I have read some of her articles in "The Atlantic." I like how she presents her case in such a clear and succinct manner and I intend to recommend this book to people I know, such as in my book discussion groups.
This book rates 5 stars mainly due to the critical importance of its message.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russland, China, Nordkorea, Iran, Venezuela - die Liste der Autokratien in ihren verschiedensten Ausprägungen ist lang, hybride und nicht abschließend, ihre Macht wird immer weiter gestärkt, vor allem dadurch, dass sie sich gegenseitig den Rücken frei halten - durch Korruption, Fake News, den Austausch von Technologien und wirtschaftlicher Kontrolle. Die amerikanisch polnische Historikerin und Journalistin Anne Applebaum seziert in ihrem Sachbuch "Die Achse der Autokraten - Korruption, Kontrolle, Propaganda: Wie Diktatoren sich gegenseitig an der Macht halten" genau diese Strukturen, die Autokratien erschaffen und aufrecht erhalten - und wie westliche Demokratien diese durch ihr Finanzwesen und ihre Wirtschaft unterstützen. Das Buch setzt einen dringend benötigten Fokus auf die Gefahren, die von autokratischen Tendenzen auf die Demokratie ausgehen und bietet wichtige Einblicke in aktuelle geopolitische Entwicklungen. Trotz der komplexen Thematik ist das Sachbuch gut verständlich und fesselnd geschrieben, Anne Applebaum gelingt es, eine große Menge an Informationen leicht zugänglich zu machen. Applebaum macht deutlich, wie die Diktatoren der Welt hinter den Kulissen zusammenarbeiten und sich mit aggressiven Taktiken gegenseitig Sicherheit und Straffreiheit verschaffen - sehr lesenswert und gerade durch das letzte Kapitel, das Handlungsspielräume für Demokrat*innen eröffnet, sich gegen die Autokratisierung der Welt zu wehren, auch ein hoffnungsvolles Buch. Gelesen habe ich "Die Achse der Autokraten" in der haptisch und optisch ansprechenden Ausgabe der Büchergilde mit einem Einband mit Metallic-Textur-Papier - sehr zu empfehlen!

Übersetzt von Jürgen Neubauer.

[Henk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now shortlisted for the Women's prize for non-fiction, a relevant book if ever there was one!
An urgent analysis of how autocratic forces support each other and subvert democracies in the 21st century. Against techno utopianism, kleptocracy and polarisation, Applebaum offers a sharp and compelling book
If you are loyal, you can be corrupt

A sobering read that fits in well with Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty which I read earlier in 2025. It is sobering how money and corruption everywhere, in both developing and developed countries, manages to suppress free investigative journalism, independent judiciary, general transparency and human rights.
Patriotism and nationalism are used as excuses to limit rights and with the current political environment the pleas of Anne Applebaum for a broad democratic alliance are unlikely to crystallise.

Transformation of a semblance of democracy and care for international and internal pressures in the 20th century to full on extraction and repression in the 2000s and support across formal communist, theocratic and autocratic/proto-fascistic regimes.

Ignoring international law and order created post 1945, including the UN has spread throughout the world. Applebaum initially describes after 1989 change through rapprochement was used, reflecting a naive belief in trade as a harbinger of an irrepressible march to liberal democracy in the 90s and 00s.
This resulted in enablement of autocracies by Western international tax advisors, banks, consultants, accountants and real estate agents. Countries like Jersey, Liechtenstein, Andorra, UAE, Türkiye and the UK profiting from wealth extraction from autocratic regimes.
This led to new structures of power: If you are loyal, you can be corrupt, since corrupt politicians and civil workers are more pliable than non-corrupt ones.

Examples given are stark, over $300 billion being stolen in Venezuela per 2013.
Russia, Cuba and China support to Venezuela in response to Western sanctions in 2013 and 2014. Corruption however being so rampant that the whole economy collapsed and cooperation becoming limited to oil, commodities, soldiers and weapon exports.
As Navalny said to his fellow Russians: You have bad roads and bad healthcare, because they have vineyards, helicopter pads and oyster farms.

Anti Americanism and shared grievances with the Western world order being a shared basis of support between wildly different regimes, binding together a communist Latin American country and Iran, a Middle Eastern theocracy.
China building a new parliament building for Zimbabwe and giving concessions for diamond and lithium mines to Chinese companies, and enabling Huawei to build internet infrastructure in the country.

Tech utopian visions turning out in methods of surveillance, enabled by Western companies like Cisco, with Huawei facial recognition technology even being sold to Singapore.
Transparency from Western countries on surveillance scandals leads to broader acceptance of these technologies in the world at large.
Exporting cynicism and passive acceptance: our country might be corrupt but so are all the other countries.

In this environment LGBTQIA+ minorities as an easy scapegoat and binding conservatives across states together.
Firehose of lies undermines all belief in the possibility of progress and creates broad nihilism and cynicism.

China increasing it’s cultural clout through subsidised broadcasts in local languages in Africa and with Xinhua offering stipends to local “journalists” that spread China friendly narratives.
Russia Today being welcomed in Algeria while French broadcasters were expelled.
Western platforms abolishing factchecks being a further example of an assault against truth and facts.
Polarisation and stoking conflicts in democracies and attacking the rule-based post-WWII order.
Human rights being framed as infringements on sovereignty and Western imperialism. Russia using anti-colonial language and concepts as multipolarity as a basis to annex parts of Ukraine.
BRICS and Shanghai cooperation organisation showing international institutions being founded on the axis against the Western rules based order.

Belarus diverting a Ryanair flight, transporting citizens between two EU member states, to capture a dissident. Unprecedented challenge to the rules based international order.
Transnational repression, with Chinese “police stations” found in both America and the Netherlands.
Russia attacking hospitals and allowing Syria to attack UN convoys, undermining international war treaties, later on replicated in Ukraine and Gaza. Arabian league accepting Assad again, despite war crimes against civilians.
Russia offering “survival kits” for dictators across the world, with Assad being flown to Russia as a key example.
Slander campaigns, modelled on what Nixon tried to do against his enemies, work, with Venezuela setting up a mini-payment system for people who spread state media views.

How Autocracy Inc is brilliant in how it describes the authoritarian playbook, but the solutions to this worrying trend are hard to find.
Applebaum suggests dismantling kleptocratic structures and fostering transnational transparency, offering a plea against indifference and feeling powerless.
I have little hope for this crystallising, given the current political climate.
She suggests to force people and nations to choose between autocracy and democracy instead of letting the mighty and rich pick and choose from both.
Isolationism being attractive as a simple narrative, but limiting the power of democracies in the world.

[Queralt✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright, I’ve read this in one sitting while at the airport and I didn’t love it. It felt a bit all over the place. I think some stuff needed double-checking (North Korea stuff, the weird Catalonia thing I couldn’t find online but the author mentions, etc.).

I expected something more coherent/focused. I do understand the premise that autocracies survive with the support of other autocracies (and other actors), but the book felt like being a pinball ball being thrown from topic to topic hoping the message would land.

This is a nice book for people from the US that are worried about Russia. I’m personally not one of those people.

[rudaina · Rating 1 out of 5]

good read if you're a democrat worried about the russians and the chinese, i suppose. but it feels simplistic at best, disingenuous at worst to write an entire book about autocracy while championing capitalism and ignoring how capitalism upholds autocrats. we're presented with this idea that democratic countries are a bulwark against autocracies, and frankly in the world we're living in now that feels almost akin to a disney fairy tale. democracies appease autocracies frequently, and prop them up just as frequently so to tout it as some kind of unequivocal solution is odd. especially when applebaum provides examples such as the democratic world's increasing use of surveillance (before promptly moving on and not addressing this further) and brushes past american "mistreatment" of iraqi POWs and civilians during the war on terror (and saying the perpetrators were punished accordingly....bffr.....................).

and all of that's without even mentioning her complete lack of discussion of israel – who she counts as a democracy btw. so i guess that's the standard we are comfortable holding democracy to.

don't get me wrong – this is not me saying living in the united states is somehow exactly the same as living in putin's russia, but to say the solution is democracy without actually deeply examining the limitations of democracy just isn't adequate anymore. i realize the one star is harsh but really, we must move beyond this centrist drivel and examine the societies we live in more critically and that cannot happen as long as we subscribe to the belief that we can rely on "the west" as the protector and champion of human rights in global politics. it only encourages complacency in people during a time when we are watching the failures of neoliberal policies play out in front of us.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book doesn’t tell you what to think; it asks you to think.

I didn’t come to Autocracy, Inc. with answers—I came with questions. Living in Canada, I’ve always understood my privilege: a relatively stable (questionable) democracy, institutions that (mostly) hold, and a slight bit of distance to US politics.

But the results of the 2024 U.S. election left me unsettled, not just because of how people voted, but because I didn’t understand why people voted that way. How does a system get to the point where polarization feels inevitable?

This book was my way of searching for context, not absolution.

It’s not about liking the system; it’s about fearing the alternatives.

There’s this quote « You may not like our society, but at least we are strong and the democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided, dying » that hit me like a brick.

It’s not hard to see how this kind of narrative seeps into everyday conversations, social media outrage, and even how we argue about democracy itself. It’s like watching a play where the actors are puppets and the strings are algorithms.

What I appreciated most is that it doesn’t villainize; it simply lays bare. It’s clear-eyed but not cold. The book dives into how autocratic regimes don’t need to offer utopias anymore—they just need to make democracy look worse. And I don’t know about your Tik Tok algorithms, but that definitely looks like my FYP.

There’s another haunting quote: « The point isn’t to make people believe a lie; it’s to make people fear the liar. » 

Fear is such a powerful weapon, and it’s not limited to governments. It’s present in the digital spaces we inhabit every day, where division sells, and outrage keeps the algorithm churning.

For me, this wasn’t just about politics. It’s about culture, about how we’re so busy playing defense that we forget to ask bigger questions. Like, what happens when our shared reality fractures? When the truth isn’t something we search for but something we curate? The book prompted me to think about how interference—whether foreign or domestic—isn’t always obvious.

It made me think about how we got so good at shouting at each other across the divide that we forgot to ask, “Who built this divide in the first place? And why? »

I also highly recommend the podcast « Who Trolled Amber? » for this exploration of foreign interference on American division.

Maybe I’m delusional (I am), but I couldn’t help but feel the hope buried within the pages. Hope that we can untangle these threads if we stop villainizing each other and start asking better questions. It’s not about forgiving the unforgivable but understanding how we got here. That nuance feels revolutionary in a time when nuance itself is endangered.

Read this. Let it make you uncomfortable. Then take a long, hard look at the systems we live in and ask yourself: What do we want to build instead?

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Autocracy Inc. is a continuation of the mythology that it’s democracies versus autocracies. Writing an entire book about autocracy without a single mention of a democratic power propping up an authoritarian government is disingenuous at best. 

US foreign policy has shown that business interests trump any regard for democratic values. Post WWII, the CIA had straight-up Nazi collaborators and fascist dictators on their payroll. But—as long as they can exploit your resources, it does not matter if you are a mad king or an authoritarian fascist. They're cool like that. 

Despite Applebaum’s criticism of the Saudis and Emiratis, she somehow forgets to mention how deep (both on a public and private level) US public officials are in their pocket. It is no coincidence that Trump’s first international visit in 2017 was with King Salman. He got a military arms deal worth $350 billion dollars. Money is power, baby. 

How can we effectively tackle the threat of autocracies if we avoid discussing all the factors that contribute to their success? Behind every fascist is a capitalist high-fiving that they won the battle against communism. It’s not a bad book, but it’s limited to neoliberal talking points.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a highly informed overview of state-enabled crime and disinformation around the world. It makes a strong case for transparency and accountability, and in many ways it’s refreshing. I had assumed the book was a patriotic call for free nations to unite in a new Cold War between democratic and autocratic states. So at first I was pleased to see Applebaum’s even-handedness in exposing corruption and abuse across the world. For example, she shows how kleptocracy by dictators, corrupt corporations, secretive financial institutions, and anonymously owned shell companies siphon off wealth from probably all nations to offshore tax havens like Jersey or the Cayman Islands, hiding perhaps 10% of global GDP. Also, “The fact that anonymous shell companies were purchasing condominiums in Trump-branded properties while Trump was president should have set off alarm bells.”

In clarifying the issue of “autocracy,” she explains that we “should think about the struggle for freedom not as a competition with certain specific autocratic states, and certainly not as a ‘war with China,’ but as a war against autocratic behaviors, wherever they are found, in Russia, in China, in Europe, in the United States.” In this view, autocracies are just the worst offenders, because they are the most invested in maximizing benefits for the most powerful few, while forcefully blocking any accountability to the public. But in general, resisting corruption and abuse requires similar reforms everywhere. For example,

“We could … require all real estate transactions … to be totally transparent. We could require all companies to be registered in the names of their actual owners, and all trusts to reveal the names of their beneficiaries …. We could close loopholes that allow anonymity in the private equity and hedge-fund industries …. We could do all this in coordination with other partners around the world.”

However, Applebaum also argues that autocratic regimes are inherently devoted to destroying accountability. In her realpolitik, “Modern autocracies … however varied their ideologies, do have a common enemy. That enemy is us.” So she does still call for a new Cold War, except it should be slightly less nationalistic, and slightly less crusade-like. She seems to laud the demolition of Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline in 2022, as a blow for realism. She calls on everybody to take sides in the struggle to come:

“We no longer live in a world where the very wealthy can do business with autocratic regimes … while at the same time doing business with the American government, or with European governments …. It’s time to make them choose.”

The calling for reform and setting a beneficial example is great. I fear the demand for rather total political and economic polarization could do more harm than good.

[amycw · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Zimbabwe are threats to democracy and must be destroyed... but the biggest threat of all... worse than all of these regimes put together is Donald Trump. 🤦‍♀️

Applebaum's latest book warns of the dangers of autocratic regimes but doesn't really add anything to the conversation that isn't already widely reported in the media. She villainizes the leaders of the previously listed countries while giving democratic governments a free pass (with the exception of one historical example and numerous pot-shots at Trump). She discusses how social media is being manipulated by autocratic regimes but only seems to believe that this affects right-wing Republicans (one example was that Republicans in Idaho got worked up about illegal migration when their town wasn't even experiencing much migration... so they were obviously brainwashed by Russian-planted lies on Tik Tok). She discusses how these autocratic countries are working with each other and the political and economic ramifications of those blocs. Unfortunately, she continuously brings her petty political opinions into her writing, losing any credibility she has as a historian, in my opinion.

My biggest criticism of Applebaum's book was her inability to be honest about actions that have been taken by recent U.S. politicians and the fearmongering about Trump. For example, she writes, "There is not - at least not as of this writing - an example of the contemporary American federal government using all the instruments of the state - legal, judicial, financial - in combination with a modern, online hate campaign to target one of the president's personal enemies..." and then immediately writes an entire paragraph about how Trump has promised he will take retribution on his enemies, writing, "If he succeeds... then the blending of the autocratic and democratic worlds will be complete." The fearmongering is unreal.

If you know very little about Russia, China, and Iran, and you hate President Trump, then you might enjoy reading this book. If you already pay attention to politics and can make your own political decisions, you will most likely be disappointed with what you get out of this book.

[Emmkay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that provided me with some useful organizing principles - I think it will be a helpful lens when reading the news to spot the commonalities among autocrats, the way they seek to support one another, and the smear campaigns waged by autocracies and those with autocratic impulses against their opponents.

Though Applebaum dedicates her book to optimists and provides an epilogue on what can be done to combat autocracy, it already (the year after publication) feels in some ways out of date and a bit naive. The US isn’t going to be passing any laws to prevent kleptocracy any time soon, one imagines. At one point she emphasizes that rather than putting countries in categories (autocratic/democratic), one should look for the strains of each that exist everywhere. A good reminder, but the book does still tend to line up countries on either side of the ledger. While recognizing some increasingly autocratic tendencies, Applebaum saw both the US and Israel on the democratic side of the ledger…but that was 2024, and one wonders…

[Annabel Nied · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yikes. There’s a big American imperialism hole in this book. Completely lost me at calling Israel a democracy. I finished the book in the hopes of any kind of cogent argument about America enabling autocracies across the world and being responsible for the conditions that lead to the present, but there was none.

Especially odd was her distinction: democracies are “rule of law” and autocracies are “rule by law”. To me, this is a little ridiculous and semantic. Governments of all kinds and international orgs make and break laws constantly depending mostly on their financial interests and occasionally for the benefit of people. Applebaum clearly views free market capitalism as democracy, and does not acknowledge neoliberal American greed as causing or enabling autocracies. Applebaum accurately notes that autocrats benefit financially from their position of power in governments, yet does not mention that this is also true in democracies, especially in the US.

Decent recap of autocratic atrocities in Russia and China, but other than that, completely devoid of good geopolitical analysis.

Apologies for the rambling—had to get this down right as I finished the book, even though it’s late. Some of this probably is incoherent. May edit later.

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I'm 100% in love with all AA's historical books I've read ("Red Famine", "Iron Curtain"), I simply can't fall in love with her contemporary analysis. Why so? While she does really well in a picturesque and detailed presentation of already-happened facts when she's about to break down a present phenomenon or (even worse!) propose some solutions to the problem identified - it just does not work at all ;/

And that's the main issue with "Autocracy" - autocrats presented here are paper-thin figures from a comic book, standing against the "good" democracy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend the bastards like Putin or Lukashenko, but this rosy, Disney-fairy-tale image is not how life always look(ed/s) alike - e.g., how would you classify Pilsudski? how would you classify Ataturk? etc.

But lack of solutions is even worse here - the only answer I hear is "democracy", while we all know that it also has its flaws that can be exploited and can lead to a total mess.

I expected better from AA, but what I've got is a tedious, too-repetitive, Cpt-Obvious-style establishment narration that everyone is too fed up with. I can't help feeling disappointed.

[Arnoldas Rutkauskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Autorė, Pulitzerio premijos laureatė, labai paveikiai ir itin plačiai, su daugybe pavyzdžių iš ankstesnio ir šiandienio pasaulio, politinio gyvenimo praeities ir nūdienos kontekstuose aptaria autokratinius režimus, jų pavojus bei kaip tai veikia demokratinį pasaulį.

Knygoje labai aiškiai parodoma, kaip tokios autokratinės valstybės ir diktatoriški režimai kaip Venesuela, Baltarusija, Kinija, Rusija ar Kuba geba prieiti prie demokratinių valstybių institucijų, jų sąrangos, kaip geba užmaskuotai skleisti kleptokratiją ir apjungti mafijinį pasaulį su valstybės valdymu despotiniais metodais.

Nuošalyje nepaliekamos tokios personos ir žudikai kaip Chavezas, Maduras, Xi Jinping ir kiti. Paliečiamos naujausios temos nuo Trump’o administracijos iki dabartinio karo Ukrainoje etapo.

Ši mokslinė plačiajai auditorijai pritaikyta autokratijos analizės studija padeda suvokti, kaip dažnai pro pirštus praleidžiame, pražiūrime ir nepastebime blogio, itin apgaulingai “nekaltais” būdais įsirangiusio kaip žaltys į mūsų sociumą ir viešąją erdvę. Visiškai šiandienos nacionalines ir globalias nuotaikas bei aktualijas atspindintis skaitinys.

[Alan Tomkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about this book. The first couple chapters I thought were excellent, as they raised the alarm on the insidious and heinous practices of autocratic regimes across the world. In particular, the author pointed out that though the western democracies had long believed that constructive engagement with autocratic regimes such as China or the old Soviet bloc would lead to liberal tendencies creeping into them, they never considered that things could go in the other direction, with autocratic technologies, tendencies, & practices flowing from the autocrats into the liberal democracies. There is indeed a clear and present danger. Vigilance and prudence is certainly called for. Midway through the book, however, I was stunned by the author’s take on an episode in the Syrian civil war when the United Nations (UN) staff on the scene gave the coordinates for hospitals and schools and relief centers to the Russians so that the Russians could avoid such facilities during their military strikes on behalf of the Syrian regime. The Russians in turn actually used the coordinates to intentionally target the hospitals, knowing this would demoralize the populace. My jaw dropped to read that the author’s disappointment and reproval was directed towards Doctors Without Borders and the other medical assistance agencies who from then on declined to share information with the UN. In short order the author began to criticize democratic governments that treasure their nations’ sovereignty and will not subjugate it to the UN or International Criminal Court (ICC). She also seems to feel that the answer to the autocrats manipulating our social media is for increased regulation of social media and the internet in liberal democracies by the UN, European Parliament, and other supranational organizations. Considering the UN’s track record of being manipulated and subverted by some of the worst actors on the world stage, I am appalled by this absurd recommendation. In short, I appreciate the author’s elucidation of very real threats to our treasured traditions and way of life; but I categorically reject most of her suggested solutions. Her approach seems to me rather Wilsonian with its faith in elitist liberal “experts” and bureaucrats, yet the past hundred years of history have decidedly proved the folly of such policies. A judicious and prudent guarding of a nation’s sovereignty and the security & welfare of its citizens can, and indeed should, be a realistic component of a liberal democracy. IMHO. 2.5 stars.

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5*
Trumpai drūtai.

"A world in which autocracies work together to stay in power, work together to promote their system, and work together to damage democracies is not some distant dystopia. That world is the one we are living in right now."

[David Rush · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bullying leaders of Russia, Iran, China, Syria, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela are some of the members of Autocracy Inc, says Anne Applebaum.

The insight she brings is that these autocrats are different from dictators of times past. And there is a powerful benefit for them to join the “Inc” of Autocracy Inc. Even though ideologies and religion would normally make them enemies, the advantage of belonging to the sociopath rulers club is obvious by selling and trading with each other so they have available markets to lessen the effect of sanctions by the rest of the world who hope to make them stop killing, stealing, invading, torturing, and other classic evil dictator stuff.

Putin’s Russia was not an old fashioned totalitarian state, isolated and autarkic. Nor was it a poor dictatorship, wholly dependent on foreign donors. Instead, it represented something new: a full-blown autocratic kleptocracy, a mafia state built and managed entirely for the purpose of enriching its leaders. Pg 30

And another of the modern innovations of today’s autocrats is to vigorously flood the world with “news” that is only designed to make their enemies look bad in their own countries and their allies. She does a good job of providing examples of Autocracy Inc creating a false news pipeline to maybe try and convince the locals not so much how great Russia, China, or Iran are. But to muddy the waters on what truth is anyway, so we all should just give up and let Russia, China, Venezuela do whatever the heck they want. And of course discredit any actual news of state sponsored murders, torture, and cruelty in general.

It may have been the same for autocrats of an earlier era but she feels the modern autocrats especially don’t care if they ruin life for most of the populace as long as they get their mansions and yachts an golden toilets.

… what international democracy advocate Srdja Popovic has called the “Maduro model” of governance, after the current leader of Venezuela. Autocrats who adopt it are “willing to see their country enter the category of failed states,” he says – accepting economic collapse, endemic violence, mass poverty, and international isolation if that’s what it takes to stay in power. Pg 7

A recurring theme is how stupid the “west” was to assume after the fall of Soviet Union that free trade and capitalism would lead naturally to everybody embracing democracy.

Spoiler alert, that did not happen.

Everyone assumed that in a more open interconnected world, democracy and liberal ideas would spread to the autocratic states. Nobody imagined that autocracy and illiberal-ism would spread to the democratic world instead. Pg 27

OK...even though I am no expert on any of this stuff I think from even generally available information, even if it is somewhat superficial, everything she says is true. Yep, she has got it right. Well except for her solution that if all the good countries just pull together we can set the world right.

Just as the democratic world once built an international anticommunist alliance, so can the United States and its allies build an international anti-corruption alliance, organized around the idea of transparency, accountability, and fairness, enhanced by the creative thinking found in the autocratic diasporas as well as the democracies themselves. Pg 163

There, good book. It has details but not too many so it is a quick read.

BUT, I feel there is a really big blind spot, and it shows up on the first page

Corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled in another. The police in one country may arm, equip, and train the police in many others. Pg 1

WOW, has she never heard of School of the Americas? Has see never heard of US involvement in IRAN, Guatemala, Chile?

I am definitely NOT saying that justifies Russia or Iran, just if you make such a statement while posing as a public intellectual then you should be a bit more intellectual.

And with her recommendation for the good guys to band together for accountability and fairness, where was she during the Iraq war? Or when republicans only goal was to make Obama a one term president, or when Newt Gingrich put the dis-function into the republican machinery? Was she writing op-eds denouncing Trump when he started Birther-ism. OR, heaven forbid, criticize Reagan when he called government the problem? When the government is the people?

My point is, it is all well in good to call for fairness now that Trumpism want to overturn elections and turn the civil service into a political rewards club and Russian and China want to invade other countries. But the trajectory of the modern conservative movement was visible back then and she was part of it as a bright eyed neo-con .

CAVEAT LECTOR, I read she is a neo-conservative so I assume much, but she lives in Poland now (I also read) so maybe she just wasn’t paying attention. BUT she did research on the baddies, so maybe some research of her own worldview would be in order.

BUT, like I said above...she is right about everything in this book.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 2 out of 5]

В този си манифест Ан Апълбаум очертава как днес авторитарните държави и диктатурите следват принципа “Диктатури от цял свят, обединявайте се!” Освен че, разбира се, често активно търгуват една с друга, те също така обменят и опит в поддържането на репресивни политически режими, смазване на опозицията, военни технологии и технологии за следене, цензура, пропаганда и изолация. Дали ще обменят военни инструктори или ще споделят дигитални “информационни” техники, принципът на взаимопомощта е силно застъпен.

Апълбаум обобщава някои интригуващи тенденции за влиянието на Русия и Китай в Африка, някои специфики на африканските диктатури и на венецуелския режим. Особено моментите за цензурата и генерирането и световното разпространение на фалшиви новини, както и за групировката Вагнер, са доста образователни.

Това, което обаче е слабост на американските автори от този тип, и на Апълбаум в частност (началото на книгата ѝ за Гладомора в Украйна страдаше от същия недъг) е тунелната ѝ визия. Тя гледа само по права линия от точка А до точка Б, в силно опростен модел, където на всичкото отгоре има почти холивудско разделение между добрите и лошите.

В крайна сметка, ние като бивша социалистическа република, чудесно знаем, че тези взаимовръзки на определен тип режими не са от вчера и няма смисъл от такъв апломб. Те са текли през цялата студена война, често с много сходни участници. Като обаче САЩ също подкрепяха доста бандити и главорези, без грам либерализъм на местен (далеч от САЩ) терен. Тъй че тази гледна точка намирисва леко на лицемерие.

Със списъка с цитирани автокрации съм съгласна (Русия, Китай, Иран, някои африкански режими и т.н.). Но Апълбаум изрично не включва такива, които са удобни на САЩ, като Саудитска Арабия например. А и САЩ сега вървят в посока авторитаризъм, и точно това тревожи Апълбаум. Права е да се тревожи, ние също отдавна трябва да сме разтревожени, макар и без нейната удобна едностранчивост и избирателност.

Апълбаум изрежда някои техники на мирни активисти. Но дори тя посочва пълния им крах, защото който държи сатъра в държавата, и го държи здраво, без да се колебае да поизколи малко народ, той не може да бъде съборен с мирни демонстрации. Тези демонстрации рано или късно секват - изолирани, осмени, бити, затворени, убити. Тъй че тези нейни “препоръки” отново звучат като даване на акъл на гладуващия заради мизерия да се храни по-питателно…

Добър момент на Апълбаум е, че самите либерални общества са дотам либерални, че прибират парите на автокрации и диктатури и безгрижно допускаха доскоро пропагандата им и лошите им практики да ги разяждат.

Затова и либерализмът не е никак лесна работа. Подобно на - мисля първия президент Рузвелт - нужда е блага дума и здрава тояга или по нашенски - со кроце, со благо и со малце кютек. Моментът с тоягата и съчетанието ѝ с либерализма е най-силното изпитание за оцеляването му. Защото диктатурите го нямат този проблем - там дървото - дигитално и офлайн - играе наред, заедно с теориите на конспирацията и митовете за дегенератите от гнилия Запад, които си продават децата на LGBTQ…

Книгата е писана - назидателно и нравоучително - изцяло за американци, които не четат друго освен някое и друго заглавие от пресата, но пък редовно ходят на неделната проповед. Посланието обаче е объркано и неясно.

2,5⭐️

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I might find this book more compelling in 20 years, when the implications of current-day autocracies have played out more.

The overall idea — that the governments of a wide range of countries, from Russia to Iran and North Korea and China, are little more than kleptocracies, with leaders caring about staying in power and enriching themselves rather than about any particular ideology — it feels just a bit too simplistic, and the kind of straightforward explanation that fits better when looking back on history rather than at the current day.

There are two other arguments Applebaum makes that really ring true (but could also just be short-form op-eds):
- These autocracies often use strategies of disinformation intended to confuse people and make it seem that the truth is impossible to know
- Western institutions and systems are often complicit in enabling these leaders to hide their wealth, and policies should be introduced to make that more difficult (e.g. to stop anonymous real estate purchases)

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Journalist Anne Applebaum takes a different approach to warning about the dangers of modern autocracies. Instead of thinking of them as completely  separate authoritarian fiefdom-structured governments, it is more accurate to think of them as crime organizations, ones with oligarchic hierarchies, and international influence and interests.

Technology has made it both harder and easier to fight authoritarianism. While we are more aware of what autocrats are doing, it doesn't make it any easier to stop them. Even worse, government propagandists and proxies play specific roles in framing events. When necessary, they "flood the zone" so that ordinary people get frustrated and think there's no way to sort out the truth from under an avalanche of deep fakes, bad takes, conspiracy theories, and other falsehoods. 

None of this would work, of course, unless citizens all went along with it. The drive towards self-preservation is intense and understandable. One goes along to get along. It is better not to question anything, if that might get one sent to a place of  unspeakable horrors. True courage is so rare that it stands out. And standing in a spotlight can be a tremendously dangerous place to be. Just ask Bill Browder or Vladimir Kara-Murza.

It would take real work to fight the hold that the few have over the many, but there are places to start. Applebaum suggests that we in the U.S. and our friends in Europe can prioritize and demand that the laws be changed that protect international tax havens, private real estate records, and dubious shell corporations.

The first place to start is everywhere: a full-pronged approach to overwhelm the network that has a stranglehold on too many governments and too many people, all over the world. It is not enough for the people to rise up. The fascists always have a plan, and the protections of, or reclamation of, democratic institutions, require a plan as well.

Applebaum suggests that just as the problem is International, the solution will have to be international. We will have to work together, people with key talents and abilities to grind the current kleptocratic system to a halt, and most especially, to get things moving in the opposite direction.

This book is a short volume, but it packs a big punch and is supported by copious evidence. There is hardly anyone with more practical advice than Applebaum. We need more brave voices to join her.

[Amr Hassan · Rating 1 out of 5]

For some reason the author has continuously failed to go one step back and mention the stirrer of most of this is started by the CIA and failed to mention the US roles in maintaining those autocracies

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compact but informative. An important read.