Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum-Book

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Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum – Book

Anne Applebaum is a reporter, an expert on Eastern Europe, Russia, China, Arabic nations and African nations. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner. Her newest book, Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, looks small but it’s an important manual describing the wheeling and dealing of autocrats both at home and abroad. This is a book that should be in your library if you believe that democracy, freedom, and human rights are worth fighting for. If you don’t think that there is a fight, read this book and it just might make you a believer. If you want to hear about strategies that could work in this fight they are on offer. It’s a war unlike the old Cold War we are familiar with. The dynamics are complex and the strategies change. Summarizing this book won’t work as it is a handbook and every word seems to carry weight. It is full of anecdotes that make concepts easy to understand and add value to the author’s arguments.

In the Introduction, Applebaum argues that it is greed that binds these autocrats, that their kleptocracy is metastasizing, that autocrats have learned how to control the narrative and change up the operating system (with a boost from tech advances) and that part of their plan involves smearing the Democrats. Action strategies are discussed in the Epilogue entitled Democrats United.

“Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security systems-military, paramilitary, police-and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation.” (p. 1)

Members of Autocracy, Inc are connected within a given autocracy, but also with leaders in other autocratic countries, and sometimes with politicians in democracies too. These nations have different historical roots, goals and aesthetics, Applebaum tells us and then lists the nations:

China-Communism

Russia-Nationalism

Venezuela-Bolivarian socialism

North Korea-Juche

Islamic Republic of Iran-Shia radicalism

 Monarchies: not as likely to seek to undermine the democratic world

Saudi Arabia

The Emirates

Vietnam

Softer autocracies (illiberal democracies)-choose allies based on expediency

Turkey

Singapore

India

Phillippines

Hungary

Other autocracies:

Nicaragua

Angola

Myanmar

Cuba

Syria

Zimbabwe

Belarus

Sudan

Azerbaijan 

and 3 dozen others that are not named in the introduction.

Applebaum tells us that these nations do not act like a “bloc” but rather like “an agglomeration of companies bound not by ideology but rather a ruthless single-minded determination to preserve wealth and power). (which Applebaum and others call Autocracy, Inc.) (p. 4)

“They share a determination to deprive their citizens of any real influence or public voice, to push back against all forms of transparency or accountability, and to repress anyone, at home or abroad, who challenges them. (p. 3)

She tells us that their bonds are “cemented not through ideals, but through deals.” (p. 3)

Autocracy, Inc. nations collaborate to keep members in power and create a new world order (to replace the liberal world order). (p. 17) 

“The autocracies believe they are winning. That belief-where it came from, why it persists, how the democratic world originally helped consolidate it, and how we can defeat it-is the subject of this book.) (p. 17)

It’s difficult to write about Applebaum’s book in my own words because she has done her due diligence, she is the expert we all need to consult, and every point she makes resonates if you have been watching and feeling anxious about the spread of autocracy. The book is full of anecdotes that we will recognize from news feeds although, perhaps, we were not able to put them into an organized framework to explain how powerful these concerted and often selfish efforts have been in creating changes in the world. If we don’t want to give up on the ideals of freedom of speech and freedom of thought and transparency; all the democratic principles we admire, then we will need better strategies to fight nations that do not mind fighting dirty. Demonstrations are not the best option. Applebaum explains why.

If you are an activist this is an important book to read and study. If you think governments are too corrupt and that you will ignore politics and live your life, you also need to read and study this book. Autocracy, Inc. is counting on ambivalence as an important weapon in this war on democracy.