Political Chaos Anywhere
Is A Threat To Democracy Everywhere
Anne Applebaum, the author of Autocracy Inc. is an American journalist and historian. Her writing has focused on the history of communism and other social issues in central and eastern Europe.
Her book is well documented and an easy read.
The title really drew me in.
Autocracy Inc.: The Dictators Who Want To Run The World
It is, of course, no revelation that dictators want to run the world and we know who the dictators are: Putin, Xi, Lukashenko, Kim and several others, all of whom are mentioned in the book.
What most people don’t realize is that these leaders have little in common. I doubt they even like each other. As far as I know, they don’t socialize on a regular basis.
Put them all in a locked room for an extended period of time and it’s likely only one would emerge still standing.
But what the book points out so clearly is they do have one thing in common: Totalitarianism (with a capital “T”). The ideological differences between these states are huge but they all agree and understand well that Democracy is their common enemy. They hate democracy and there’s no limit to the abuse they’ll mete out toward any person, institution or idea that supports or encourages a democratic approach.
The biggest target, of course, and again the book points this out, is the United States and their Democratically minded allies (think NATO), and the leaders of these nations who encourage and support democracy around the world. Sad to say, those leaders are becoming less abundant all the time.
Autocracy Inc. isn’t focused primarily 0n NATO but it should be obvious to any thinking person that the individuals who oppose NATO the most are the autocrats so clearly exposed in the book.
It makes you wonder why Trump so vociferously attacked NATO at the beginning of his first administration. Was there a hidden agenda? Was He aiding and abetting? Is there any scenario in which the world would be a better place without NATO?
And if his intention was to strengthen the alignment of democratic nations against autocratic intrusions, aren’t there a thousand better ways to do that? Is hammering everyone into submission really the best approach?
Again, Autocracy Inc. wasn’t focused on NATO or primarily a lesson on the benefits of democracy. It also wasn’t a campaign ad opposing Trump. I was actually surprised at how little the book said about Trump and the politicians who align with him.
But if you’re aware of what’s happened in the past, you can’t help but wonder. Why was Trump so chummy and complimentary toward autocrats and so frictious with leaders more aligned with democratic principles.
Even if one totalitarian state disagrees with and hates another (make no mistake – there’s no love lost between them), Applebaum ably proves that nothing will stop them helping one another oppose and defame democracy.
Unlikely Trading Partners
Autocracy Inc. puts a dot on the old adage:
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
China and Iran are good examples. China is atheistic (putting it mildly), the Government is God and Mao’s little red book is the bible. Iran on the other hand, represents the opposite extreme.
One believes there is no God and the other imposes their idea of God on everyone. If there was no one else in the world, these two would be killing each other.
But at the moment, the bigger enemy is Democracy, and each will stop at nothing to oppose it even if it means supporting one another.
The book points out a good example.
In 2015, Obama initiated a nuclear agreement with Iran to limit the production of nuclear arms and the carrot in the deal was the removal of sanctions. Trump, of course, hated both Obama and Iran so he did two things, he ended the agreement with Iran and placed enormous sanctions on Iran along with anyone doing business with them – 1500 sanctions in all. His idea was to strong-arm them into submission – the plan was referred to as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and was intended to apply “Maximum Pressure” on the Iranians.
Did the plan work? Unfortunately not. Autocracy Inc. points out that, in response, Iran:
Created a new foreign policy slogan – “Turning East” – and signed an agreement giving China access to discounted Iranian oil as well as to the Iranian petrochemical, infrastructure, telecommunications, and banking markets. (p 117)
Maybe Trump had the right motives, maybe not. We can’t say for sure but what we do know is that his heavy handed diplomacy didn’t work. The deal with China weakened the sanctions Trump placed on Iran and demonstrated that autocrats work together even when they hate each other.
Apparently China wasn’t worried about Trump’s threats either and the insult didn’t go unnoticed. Trump missed no opportunity to aggravate relations with China for the rest of his first term.
That tit for tat approach is likely to continue in the second term.
Strategies Are Never Static
Applebaum emphasizes an important point about the development of autocratic strategies. Totalitarian leaders learn, develop and implement new strategies regularly, sometimes using technological idiosyncrasies before those capabilities are fully implemented by the very companies whose platforms created them.
I can’t explain the technicalities of how it all works but trolls working for totalitarian regimes learned how to use algorithms to push posts favorable to their ideologies to the front of search engine results and social media platforms before others cottoned on to the possibilities. It worked and their ideas were widely seeded.
It’s also true that a little social destabilization here and there can cause democratically minded nations – the ones who consider individual rights sacred – a lot of trouble. It happens often and is not as coincidental as you might think. Applebaum covers these issues quite well in the book.
if you’re democratically minded, this book is for you. Democracy, which encourages the individual rights of people, is defended only when individuals exercise those rights.
THINK!AboutIt
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