"An alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world. 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 twenty-first century, that image bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned by sophisticated networks composed across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. They pose a threat not just to their own citizens but to democracies all over the world ... Today's autocracies, [Applebaum] shows, are supported by a web of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists who operate beyond their own borders. 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. The autocrats are rewriting the rules of world trade and governance as their propagandists pound home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. The members of Autocracy, Inc., aren't linked by a unifying ideology but rather by a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity, and by their belief that democratic ideas, whether they come from their own internal opposition or from the democratic world, are dangerous and must be destroyed. If democracies are to survive ... we must reframe our worldview and learn how to fight back"--Dust jacket flap.
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