Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum (Paperback)

In Autocracy, Inc., historian and journalist Anne Applebaum argues that modern dictatorships no longer stand alone. Regimes as different as China, Russia and Iran are bound less by ideology than by a shared appetite for power, wealth and impunity, and they support one another through corrupt business links, security and police cooperation, diplomacy and coordinated propaganda.

She explains why sanctions and protest movements have made so little impact on them and calls on democracies to organise in response. It is a short, readable book for anyone following world politics and current affairs.

• Networks of power: how autocracies share money, technology and tactics
• Information war: the role of propaganda across borders
• A response: the case for democracies to act together
• Updated: this paperback adds a new preface on Donald Trump's return to the presidency

Details

• Author: Anne Applebaum
• Publisher: Vintage
• Published: August 2025
• Format: Paperback, 240 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780593471203