Autocracy, Inc.: Book Review

Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, Anne Applebaum, 2024. I recently finished reading 1984. Now the question is which is worse: the dystopia of Orwell or any of the dystopias of today. It was all about power for Orwell. It is vast wealth and power for today’s dictators, plus the disregard for the populations of those countries (even the concept of “failed state” for a wealthy country is okay). Somehow these megalomaniac leaders work together, sharing their “best” ideas and supporting each other although ideology is unimportant.

Introduction: “Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services—military, paramilitary, police—and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation. The members of these networks are connected not only to one another within a given autocracy but also to networks in other autocratic countries, and sometimes in democracies too. Corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business in another. The police in one country may arm, equip, and train the police in many others. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms and media networks that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote another’s—as well as themselves: the degeneracy of democracy, the stability of autocracy, the evil of America” (p. 1).

They can be communists, monarchists, nationalists, and theocrats, with different values and goal—except personal power and wealth. The major culprits are Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Angola, Myanmar, Cuba, Syria, Zimbabwe, Mali, Belarus, Sudan, and Azerbaijan. About three dozen more are dishonorable mentions. There is no accountability and will repress those who try to challenge them. They make deals to avoid sanctions and expand control. The leaders can rule for decades. Russia and Iran invest in Venezuela’s oil. “A Belarusian company assembles tractors in Venezuela. Turkey facilitates the illicit Venezuelan gold trade. Cuba had long provided security advisors” (p. 3).

They used to hide their dictatorships behind facades of democracy. Now, they accuse the “West” of an imperial plot and use open brutality. Economic collapse, violence, and isolation can be acceptable outcomes, claiming democracies are weak and degenerate. Violence and universal revolution are expected by some like the radical Islam of Sayyid Qutb, with democracies, political opposition, and independent media the enemy. China had the “seven perils” that included universal values, media independence, civic participation, and constitutional democracy.

Ukraine started with the Orange Revolution in 2004, with the public opposed to Russia’s candidate Yanukovych. Public discontent could only be expressed in street protests. In addition to Ukraine, demonstrations worked in the Philippines, Taiwan, South Africa, South Korea, and Mexico, then Eastern Europe in 1989. The Arab Spring and Hong Kong protests did not win, where the concept of justice did not survive. The author identified Putin as the “inventor of the modern marriage of kleptocracy and dictatorship” (p. 12). This was partly about rejecting rule of law and “world order. … Putin thought that he would get away with these crimes and win quickly” (p. 14).

“Democracies underestimated the scale of the challenge. … They slowly learned that they were not merely fighting Russia in Ukraine. They were fighting Autocracy, Inc.” (p. 15). Iran and North Korea sold weapons to Russia in exchange for cheap oil.

Chapter 1: The Greed That Binds. Started in 1967, the USSR agreed to build a gas pipeline to Western Europe [with Germany the chief beneficiary]. German leader Willy Brandt thought this would make war impossible. Nixon and Reagan worried about Soviet economic leverage. Many believed that liberal democratic ideas would prevail, including “change through trade,” which was great for economic profit. It worked for uniting with East Germany and bringing Eastern European nations into NATO and the EU.

Putin wanted Russia to become rich, but also an empire: “a full-blown autocratic kleptocracy, a mafia state built and managed entirely for the purpose of enriching its leaders. … Russian capitalism was designed to favor insiders who knew how to extract and hide money abroad” (p. 30). Western institutions and lawyers were profiting enablers and an amoral finance system. Putin’s KGB experience gave him expertise on money laundering [and intimidation]. Russian kleptocrats bought US businesses through shell companies and ran them into bankruptcy for profit just like domestic private equity companies—“kleptopia.” Add offshore tax havens like Cayman Islands. US and British were for sale to nameless investors.

China developed contacts with western economists and focusing on trade. Some analysts thought China becoming democratic was delusional. “Autocracy is a political system, a way of structuring society, a means of organizing power” (p. 27).  

Chapter 2: Kleptocracy Metastasizes. Venezuela was a wealthy and democratic oil state, but “nepotistic and corrupt” (p. 43). Then Hugo Chavez became president in 1998 and turned the country into a kleptocracy, but he assumed that corruption would keep him in power—which it did for 14 years. That included breaking the press, courts, civil service, and the rest. Billions of oil money went into foreign banks including $10 billion in Swiss banks. That included massive smears against those opposed likely fleeing the country. The attractions included anti-American, neo-Marxism and related propaganda. When oil prices dropped and sanctions took effect, Venezuela had extensive shortages and hyperinflation.

Maduro became president when Chavez died in 2013. New funding included drug trafficking, illegal mining, extortion, and kidnapping. Other autocratic states helped including China. “Klepto” contractors would abscond with money, meaning China took losses. Cuba traded oil for soldiers, security, and intelligence. Then the trick of distributing food and other goods to supporters, creating starvation as a political tool. Turkey’s Erdogan became another supporter, although Turkey was a member of NATO—presumably they shared “grievances.”

Robert Mugabe built a one-party state in Zimbabwe after winning independence from Britain in 1980, developing a patronage network, while white farmers produced cash crops. Mugabe expropriated the land and gave it to supporters, then farm production collapsed. Mnanggwa pushed Mugabe out in 2017, increasing the level of corruption. China became the largest investor in Zimbabwe, including mining lithium, platinum and nickel.

Uebert Angel was a pastor in Zimbabwe: “He sells his diplomatic immunity to facilitate a classic ‘laundromat.’ Money obtained from gold sales is transferred to the bank accounts of criminal groups, they then hand over an equivalent amount of ‘dirty’ money to the Zimbabwean government” (p. 55).

Financial systems in developed countries accommodated klepto cash, then tax havens and “bridging jurisdictions” (hybrid sites like the United Arab Republic). Bektour Iskender was a founder of Kloop in 2007 to investigate corruption beginning in Kyrgyzstan.

Chapter 3: Controlling the Narrative. In 1989 Eastern European countries became democratic, later joining NATO and the EU. In the same year, Chinese students demonstrated in Tiananmen Square, to be attacked by Chinese tanks and soldiers killing, wounding, and jailing thousands. China set out to eliminate not just the people but the ideas related to the protests (rule of law, separation of powers, free speech), plus using information technology to clamp down (somewhat similar to 1984). This included “internet management,” with help from foreign companies like Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and Yahoo. China took the technologies and kicked the companies out. Social media was banned. Added were tracking tools. Security cameras, and police inspections. Algorithms are used to predict political resistance. Chinese surveillance and AI systems are sold to other Autocracies. (Some of the same technology can be used to fight crime.) China also claims they have order while democracies have chaos and violence.

Lying is rampant. “Sometimes the point isn’t to make people believe a lie; it’s to make people hear the liar. … the ‘fire hose’ of falsehoods’ produces not outrage but nihilism” (p. 78). China’s United Front creates “education programs” to control Chinese communities across the world. Considerable effort extends to Africa. Muslim and other countries are blatantly antisemitic. Russia Today (RT) has a big profile in Africa. In 2016 Russian agencies pumped out propaganda to confuse American voters, including Facebook and Twitter accounts—using “information laundering.”

On February 24, 2022, Russia swept into Ukraine. Russian propaganda was spread, claiming Ukrainians were Nazis or a puppet of the CIA.

Russian efforts in Africa include smearing Western doctors, clinics, and various non-profits, much of the disinformation from the Wagner Group. Information laundering includes Doppelganger, names that look similar to legitimate web sites, making propaganda look credible.

Taiwanese tourists got stuck by a typhoon in Japan. China claimed they rescued their own tourists using buses. Taiwan media criticized their own government, although the information was fake. “Taiwanese politics had been manipulated to push … Taiwanese democracy is weak. Chinese autocracy is strong” (p. 94).

Mexico: “After he became president, Lopez Obrador handed over civilian enterprises to the military, undermined the independence of the judiciary, and otherwise degraded Mexican democracy. He also promoted Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine” (p. 96).

Chapter 4: Changing the Operating System. The UN created the Commission on Human Rights in 1946 writing universal human rights principles and rules-based order: “The Charter of the Organization of American States declares that ‘representative democracy is an indispensable condition for the stability, peace, and development of the region’” (p. 99). China wants to remove human rights and democracy from international institutions. Rather, the right to development, which is ambiguous enough to suit autocratic interests. Sovereignty is stressed instead, negating public criticism of any Chinese policy: “rule by law,” instead of “rule of law.” Critics and independent journalists can have mysterious deaths or arrests, even violating international laws and standards: “the elimination, intimidation, or neutralization of political exiles” (p. 111).

“De-escalation is a euphemism for what happens when diplomats can’t stop a war but are trying to save people’s lives anyway” (p. 112). Syria became an active war zone when Assad fought demonstrators trying to stop his brutal practices. Iran supported Assad, sending weapons to Iranian proxies including Hezbollah and Hamas. Russia wanted to keep ties with Assad. When the UN gave Syria the coordinates to protect hospitals, they bombed those positions. This helped ISIS develop. Also, Hamas used hospitals as shelters. Massive numbers of Syrian refugees fled to Europe, causing EU and NATO political stability. Hezbollah trained Houthis in Yemen. The Wagner Group’s mercenaries fought in Ukraine, then arrived in Mali in 2021, and expanded in central Africa—with the welcome wagon from other sitting dictators.

Chapter 5: Smearing the Democrats. In the 1990s American political scientist Gene Sharp stated: “In recent years various dictatorships—of both internal and external origin—have collapsed or stumbled when confronted by defiant, mobilized people” (p. 122). The key was the find the “Achilles’ heel. It worked well in Eastern Europe.

That was before Autocrats, Inc. reached their potential for violence. It was one technique at a time, that then spread like a virus to infect the rest of the controllable world. Arguably it started with China who put down demonstrations. Protests initially worked well in Hong Kong, but China studied the Sharp tactics, then smeared the leaders, then arrests.

Personal smear campaigns can be viewed as starting with Cicero in 64 BCE, advised to find dirt on his opponent when campaigning for Roman consul. Autocrats smear the opponent and his ideas, including “evidence of treason,” foreign links,” and bribery—plus Jewish conspiracy and George Soros.

Zimbabwe Pastor Evan Mawarire in 2016 made a speech about the flag of the country, getting support of the people--#ThisFlag. But the country slid into crisis and leaders viewed Mawarire as a threat. They said he was a fake and he got the full treatment, called “civil death.” He was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. When released, he fled the country with his family. Smear campaigns work. This is a form of signaling: do not resist. Perhaps better than earlier “solutions”: murder. Murder is still used by Putin. The downside of murder is creating a martyr. Better just to label people and organizations as terrorists or traitors.

Silicon Valley and Madison Avenue tactics worked for dictators, including coordinated campaigns. Enough lies, no matter how ridiculous, suggest that all governments or politicians do it and are equally corrupt.

Mexico may be the most dangerous country for journalists. The FBI had a history of unlawful acts like bugging Martin Luther King, Jr. Nixon had an “enemies list” and tried for IRS and FBI help. Trump harassed people he did not like, then former assistants suggested worse with Project 2025.

Epilogue: Democrats United. Trying to fight autocracies. Attempts at finding solutions to hard problems are difficult. The World Liberty Congress: “A gathering of people who have fought autocracies all around the world. … The Autocracies keep track of one another’s defeats and victories, timing their own moves to create maximum chaos” (p. 151). It’s not a single mastermind and the different dictators had different approaches. The common goal: “damaging democracies and democratic values” (p. 156). Some work with democracies like Saudi Arabia and Singapore, others are nominally part of the “free world:” Turkey, Israel, Hungary, India, or the Philippines, just breaking conventions.

“Free world” lawyers, bankers, and others facilitate money laundering and other transactions. These transactions can be made illegal, loopholes can be closed. There should be international anticorruption alliances. Autocrats should not be able to court politicians and commercial leaders in democratic countries to be advocates.

“In 2023 the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) marshaled intelligence and information collected by the rest of the government and began to expose a series of planned Russia campaigns” (p. 164), called “pre-bunking.” Social media companies should not be easy to game. “After Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the platform quickly became a more powerful amplifier of extremist, antisemitic, and pro-Russian narratives. TikTok, the Chinese-built platform, remains a potent and badly understood source of misinformation, not least because it is entirely untransparent” (p. 165). Reuters and the Associated Press should be standard global news sources.

Jake Sullivan, national security advisor, described Chinese dependence. “His argument was not for decoupling—meaning total detachment of the US economy from China’s—but for de-risking: ensuring that the US and the rest of the democratic world do not remain dependent on China for anything that could be weaponized in case of a crisis. … More than 30% of critical minerals are processed by one country, China” (p. 171).

China collects information that could be used for cyberwarfare. Russia and other oligarchs launder money into US and British real estate which distorted valuations. Tariffs, bans, and export controls could be more effective. Surveillance technology and AI should be better understood, and increased transparency encouraged.

Isolation is not a good solution. Brexit proved how destabilizing that could be. The claim was “take back control,” which helped tank the economy. Ukraine demonstrated the importance of alliances. “There was no coalition to aid Ukraine until February 2022” (p. 175).