Power & Politics Hub

Monday, 2 September 2024, in London Anne Applebaum presented her newest book “Autocracy, Inc.” in a talk moderated by Jonny Diamond. The talk was titled “The Dictators Who Want to Run the World”.

In the one hour talk and the subsequent thirty minute Q&A session, Ms Applebaum made a few noteworthy remarks and observations. 

According to her, it is not completely accurate to speak of a “axis of global dictatorships”, but more of a network. The global dictatorships often greatly differ with each other on matters such as ideology. As an example the People’s Republic of China has embarrassed communism, Putin’s Russia has embraced hard nationalism, Iran- theocratic Islam and Venezuela- Bolivarianism and socialism. What they do share, however, is a disdain of democratic values, freedoms and civic engagement. All of the autocrats leading those countries see democracy as their common enemy, as a threat to their regimes’ existence and worldview. This, according to Anne Applebaum is what has led Bolivarian, socialist Venezuela and theocratic Iran to have such a relationship of deep cooperation, along with purely economic and financial interests, most notably helping each other evade sanctions. 

Another interesting view, which the Pulitzer prize winner shared was that quite often autocrats see a victory of one of them, as a victory of all of them. For this reason, it is essential that Putin’s Russia does not achieve a victory in its war of aggression against Ukraine. There is likelihood that the outcome of this war has an impact on what actions China may or may not take against Taiwan. Likewise, a Ukrainian victory in the war will be seen as a victory for the democratic world, including pro-democracy movements inside the authoritarian states.

Anne Applebaum likewise agrees that dictatorships which have acquired the status of big economic or military powers such as China and Russia seek to disrupt the very fundamentals of life in democratic societies, by promoting protest, far-right and far-left extremism, discontent, fake news/ disinformation. While Ms Applebaum is of the opinion that it is too late to undertake more radical measures against some social media platforms, a solution is to have as many people actively engaged in politics. Addressing people prone to disinformation, in order to tackle this problem, is the way forward. 

Finally, another issue that was addressed was whether trade liberalisation, especially since the end of the Cold War, has not served the interests of oligarchs more than the interests of ordinary people. It is the existing legal system, as well as laws on banking and money laundering that have helped oligarchs from states like Russia to buy expensive properties, to polish their reputation in Western societies, and to obtain influence. Many businesses have even made it a main line of work to help such oligarchs transfer their assets throughout the globe. This has all been legal. It can, nonetheless, be changed. The existing system is not a given, but something created. Anne Applebaum urges this to be undone, without doing away with trade liberalisation and globalisation.

The book itself “Autocracy Inc.’ has already turned into a bestseller and is a highly recommendable read.