Autocratic Global Influence: Dictatorships Seeking Worldwide Power

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer-prize winning author, an alarming account of how autocracies collaborate 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… a masterclass in the marriage of dodgy government to international criminality… (both) deeply disturbing."—John Simpson, The Guardian

"Especially timely."—The Washington Post

The traditional notion of an autocratic state is that of an all-powerful leader controlling the police, who in turn threaten the people with violence. While this may have held true in the past, the reality in the 21st century is far more nuanced. Modern autocracies are underpinned by sophisticated networks, comprising kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. These intricate webs of corruption transcend national borders, as companies in one country do business with their counterparts in another, and the police in one nation arm and train their counterparts elsewhere, all while propagandists share resources and disseminate consistent messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.

In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan's essay calling for "containment" of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum asserts that international condemnation and economic sanctions are ineffective against these autocratic forces. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, struggle to stand up to the might of Autocracy, Inc. The members of this global network are not united by a common ideology, like communism, but rather by a shared desire for power, wealth, and impunity.

In response, Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight this new kind of threat. The traditional notions of autocracy no longer apply, and a fresh approach is necessary to combat the transnational, interconnected nature of modern authoritarianism.

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