Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World – Applebaumová Anne (2024)

One of the world’s celebrated historians and journalists examines the networks working to undermine the democratic world. Modern autocracies are not simply ruled by one powerful figure but by sophisticated international networks linking kleptocratic financial structures, security services, state-controlled companies, and professional propagandists. Dictatorships conduct business with one another, police forces share equipment and training, and propaganda resources and messages circulate across borders, reinforcing ideas about the weakness of democracy and the supposed evil of America. These forces do not operate as a traditional military or political bloc, but as an agglomeration of companies whose relationships are transactional and span ideological, geographical, and cultural divides. They share a hostility toward the democratic world and a desire to weaken its political systems and values. The book explores where this shared understanding comes from, how it operates and endures, how the democratic world has helped consolidate it, and how it might be brought down.