Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

(Paperback, Large Print Edition)

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From the Pulitzer-prize winning, New York Times bestselling author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them

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.

Reviews

Autocracy, Inc. is a valuable book for many reasons, but the focus on illicit wealth creation and on those in democracies who enable it is especially timely. So is Applebaums recommendation that we wage war on autocratic behaviors wherever they occur.The Washington Post

Anne Applebaums Autocracy, Inc. provides a trenchant account that indicates that Trump, for all his bluster about America First, is part of a global phenomenonnamely, the rise of an international kleptocracy that often works in tandem.Washington Monthly

A masterful guide to the new age of authoritarianism . . . Anne Applebaum, as anyone familiar with her writing will know, is well-positioned to catalogue this new age of autocracy. Like her, Autocracy, Inc. is clear-sighted and fearless.The Guardian

Ms Applebaum, a journalist, made her name with Gulag, a history of the Soviet Union's prison camps that won the Pulitzer prize. Her new book, Autocracy, Inc, is shorter and more urgent.The Economist

Tightly argued, crisply written...The question left unresolved by this engrossing book is whether America will ultimately confront the autocratsor sidle up to them.Air Mail

A thoughtful and thought-provoking treatise on how autocracies have transformed from the way they operated in the 20th Century to the new modus operandi of the 21st . . . Applebaum is a skilled writer; her book is short, succinct, and compelling, and she is obviously passionate about and expert on the topic. An excellent read for anyone concerned about the fate of the liberal world order-in this country and, for that matter, universally.Cipher Brief

Acompelling account of how autocrats are collectively fortifying their domestic and international power.Irregular Warfare

Applebaum is one of the most incisive observers of a global political crisis, meticulously documenting an ongoing assault on liberal democracy. . . her exhaustive reportage is an indictment of tyranny and a call to action.Book Wag

Anne Applebaums far-sighted book reveals an international network of autocrats who seek to subvert democracyBut it is also a practical manual packed with specific proposals to combat autocracy, in all its nefarious guises. Now its up to usthe proponents of democracyto step up and put these ideas into action.Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster and author of Winter is Coming

Anne Applebaum is one of the most insightful observers of dictatorship, autocracy, tyranny, authoritarianism and democracy in the world today. Autocracy, Inc. is a wakeup call and offers a way ahead to anyone interested in preserving the democratic values and culture that have been fought for at a high price in blood and treasure for over 200 years.General Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Bold, powerful and important. Impunity is on the march because of the forces and tactics exposed here. We dont just need to read this book - we need to act on it.David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom

Author Bio

After seventeen years as a columnist at The Washington Post, ANNE APPLEBAUM became a staff writer at The Atlantic in January 2020. She is the author of five critically acclaimed and award-winning books: Twilight of Democracy, Red Famine, Iron Curtain, Between East and West, and Gulag, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. She divides her time between Poland, where her husband is foreign minister, and Washington, D.C.