Autocracy, Inc. review – a 'clear-eyed' account of authoritarian regimes

Anne Applebaum explores autocracies in Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and other nations

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are some of the autocrats explored in this 'terrific book'
(Image credit: Sergei Bobylyov / POOL / AFP / Getty Images)

"International liberalism" is in crisis, and Anne Applebaum wants to know why, said Yuan Yi Zhu in The Times

In her previous book, "Twilight of Democracy", the historian and journalist took aim at liberalism's challengers in the West, particularly populist "demagogues" on the Right. In her new one, she turns her attention to its chief enemies elsewhere – the world's authoritarian regimes

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She provides a strong account of these "unlikely partnerships" and the shady forms they take, and she also does a good job of laying out the corrupting effects that they have on Western democracies. Ultimately, she says, all autocrats dream of "gutting the post-1945 international order" to make the world safer for themselves. 

It's odd that she doesn't mention the Iraq War, or the later intervention in Libya, said Dominic Lawson in The Mail on Sunday. These developments "not only gave rocket fuel to the anti-Western agenda globally", but also sapped the sense that the West had moral authority to criticise other nations' military ventures. But that is a minor quibble; this is a "terrific book".