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The cover of Autocracy, Inc.

Autocracy, Inc.

Anne Applebaum, 2024

See how modern autocracies share money, technology, propaganda, and repression across borders, and what democracies can do to defend accountability and freedom.

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7 parts, about 16 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Applebaum shows today's autocracies as a transactional network trading money, surveillance and propaganda, bound by shared interest rather than ideology
  • Reveals how Western banks, lawyers and property markets help launder stolen wealth, and what transparency rules could change
  • Moves across many countries, from kleptocracy to information laundering, while marking which claims remain alleged or disputed

Who it is for

  • Readers following Russia, China and their partners
  • Finance professionals concerned about dirty money in their markets
  • Activists and journalists facing state pressure abroad

What the summary covers

  1. A network built to preserve power2 min
  2. How democracies helped build the system2 min
  3. Kleptocracy as a method of rule2 min
  4. Surveillance and the manufacture of cynicism3 min
  5. Replacing rules with impunity2 min
  6. Democrats learn, and autocrats learn too2 min
  7. A democratic counter network3 min

Recommended by

  • Garry KasparovChess grandmaster
    Anne Applebaum’s far-sighted book reveals an international network of autocrats who seek to subvert democracy
  • Mark MilleyFormer Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
    Anne Applebaum is one of the most insightful observers of dictatorship, autocracy, tyranny, authoritarianism and democracy in the world today.
  • David MilibandPresident and CEO of the International Rescue Committee
    Bold, powerful and important.

About the author

  • Anne ApplebaumAmerican journalist and historian; Pulitzer Prize winner for Gulag
    • Born 25 July 1964; American journalist, historian and foreign policy commentator
    • BA from Yale in 1986 in history and literature; Marshall Scholar at the London School of Economics, master's in international relations 1987
    • Worked for The Economist and The Spectator; Washington Post editorial board 2002 to 2006
    • Gulag: A History won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
    • Seventeen years as a Washington Post columnist, then staff writer at The Atlantic from January 2020
    • Became a Polish citizen in 2013; married to Radosław Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister

Read it alongside

  • Goes deeperThe Broken China Dream

    Applebaum says Western engagement assumed liberal ideas would flow outward, while Pei argues that in China the ruling elite's choices mattered more than structural change and growth strengthened the party.

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