Autocracy Inc.- a book review

A spectre looms over the world-the spectre of autocracy.

Or put another way: Kleptocrats of all countries, unite!

These prefaces of Karl Marx's words are themselves pressed to the lips after reading Anne Applebaum's excellent book ‘Autocracy Inc.’.

But, unfortunately, this is by no means an intellectual joke today. For the truth is ‘much grimmer’: kleptocrats from China to Russia, Iran and Zimbabwe to Venezuela have already joined together. Whether they are left-wing populists, great-Russian nationalists or Shiite theocrats.

Or rather, they are united by their bank accounts.

These five countries are just an example. The international kleptocrat mafia helps each other because they have an economic interest in doing so. They come up with different ideologies for the people (in fact different versions of nationalist etatism), but as they say ‘money talks, bullshit walks’.

But let's start with Nikita Khrushchev and his shoe. At a UN meeting in 1960, Nikita Khrushchev took off his shoe and started banging it against the pulpit. He was sincerely convinced that the Soviet system was the best in the world and one of the UN delegates began to question this. As the greatest autocracy of the second half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union still cared about its image. So Khrushchev was banging his shoe angrily.

From today's perspecitve of the international kleptocracy, the symbolic ‘Khrushchev shoe’ appears to be something ideological. Although obviously supporting a criminal ideology.

Today's autocracies do not care at all about any image. Or ideology. Moreover, being in the circle of ‘rogue states’ is a ‘badge of honour’ for them. No one will bang their shoe. At most, they will quietly fire missiles through proxies.

So what does an international network of autocrats look like? Some examples:

Take, for example, a country like Venezuela. It has the largest oil reserves in the world. And it has long been ruled by leftist autocrats like Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro. Venezuela is practically a bankrupt country. Hyperinflation and, so hard to say in the 21st century, famine. Venezuela is the country with the largest number of emigrants in the world. Venezuela has a large and well-organised opposition. So why is this bankrupt country still operating, why is the opposition failing to restore democracy?

1.Russians send arms for oil (‘we have plenty of swords, but we'll take these too’)

2.The Chinese invest in Venezuelan companies for roba. And provide spy technology.

3.The Cubans provide secret police. For oil.

Who makes money from all this? The dictator Maduro and his clique. But all those who trade with him do too. And such Chinese have an ally in a dangerous geography vis-à-vis the US.

Let's take the other country - African Zimbabwe. It probably has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals after China. It certainly has the world's second largest platinum deposits. Certainly it is one of the largest diamond producers in the world. But perhaps it is more about the not fully explored sources of lithium. Which is essential for battery production.

The country has remained an autocracy for many decades.

The Chinese, on the other hand, are supplying Zimbabwe with state-of-the-art facial recognition AI systems so as to keep the population in line. In return, of course, for mining concessions.

In the future, can we imagine the following scenario, as Applebaum writes:

1.China invests in autocratic regimes to help them bypass international sanctions;

2.Iran may assist Islamist rebels (such as Hamas, Hezbollah or Houtis) to overthrow a democratic government anywhere in the world;

3.Venezuela can engage in global drug trafficking and Zimbabwe in global gold smuggling.

If you think this is science fiction-it is not. It is already beginning to happen before your eyes.

Iran is, a Shiite theocracy, is one of the main suppliers of weapons (drones) to Putin's Russia in its fight against democratic Ukraine. Without China's acquiescence, this would not be possible.

The wheels are closing and the Chinese, Russian and Iranian elites are buying luxury properties in London in the same exclusive neighbourhoods.

As Applebaum rightly points out in one of her author meetings (on YT), it's not as if these ‘bad guys’ meet in some secret place like in the James Bond films. Of course they don't. But their economic interests make them cooperate better than democratic states based on the structures of international organisations like the UN or NATO. Besides, two NATO members, Turkey and Hungary, can be considered half-sided of Autocracy Inc.

It is most interesting when we compare today's Chinese policy with the classic doctrine of Maoism. I recommend to everyone the brilliant book ‘Maoism, a global history’ by Julia Lovell. It tells the story of China's doctrine of global revolution. And today Xi Jingping is implementing Mao's testament.

China is trying to set the democratic world on fire, and it is doing so under Comrade Mao's doctrine. ‘Revolution is at the end of the barrel’ said Mao. Today there is no revolution. Instead, there is Chinese neo-colonisation in strategic areas of the globe and those with raw materials.

Of course, the Chinese are trying to show the latest highways and not the concentration camps for Uighurs or the suppression of protests in Hong Kong.

So, because in this column something has to be about technology after all, how does kleptocracy affect technology? One of my recent interlocutors on the YT channel, a veteran of the IT industry, a Pole with lifelong experience in Silicon Valley, stated that ‘hardware is more important than software’. As a democratic world we still have an advantage here. We are 10-15 years ahead when it comes to design. We may not have as many raw rare materials, but we have, for example, ASML- a Dutch ultralithography company, which China& Co don't have.

What can be done to defeat Autocracy Inc.?

Anne Applebaum proposes two obvious but solid means: unity of the West and supporting traditional media promoting democratic values, as social media are more and more prone manipulation. Will it do?

For the Polish readers: the book has just been published in Polish translation!