The Dictator's Learning Curve

Zusatztext 52225155 Informationen zum Autor William J. Dobson is politics and foreign affairs editor for Slate . He has been an editor at Foreign Affairs , Newsweek International , and Foreign Policy . During his tenure at Foreign Policy , the magazine was nominated for the coveted National Magazine Award for General Excellence each year and won top honors in 2007 and 2009. His articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times , The Washington Post , and The Wall Street Journal , and he has provided analysis for ABC, CNN, CBS, MSNBC, and NPR. He lives in Washington, DC. Klappentext In this riveting anatomy of authoritarianism! acclaimed journalist William Dobson takes us inside the battle between dictators and those who would challenge their rule. Recent history has seen an incredible moment in the war between dictators and democracy-with waves of protests sweeping Syria and Yemen! and despots falling in Egypt! Tunisia! and Libya. But the Arab Spring is only the latest front in a global battle between freedom and repression! a battle that! until recently! dictators have been winning hands-down. The problem is that today's authoritarians are not like the frozen-in-time! ready-to-crack regimes of Burma and North Korea. They are ever-morphing! technologically savvy! and internationally connected! and have replaced more brutal forms of intimidation with subtle coercion. The Dictator's Learning Curve explains this historic moment and provides crucial insight into the fight for democracy. Excerpted from the Hardcover Edition Chapter 1 The Czar As a KGB officer, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Putin had one foreign assignment. In 1985, at the age of thirty-­two, Putin was stationed in Dresden, East Germany. He moved there with his wife and his one-­year-­old daughter, Masha; soon after they arrived, his second daughter, Katya, was born. The Putins lived in a drab apartment building. Most of their neighbors were members of the Stasi, the East German intelligence agency. But the location was convenient, putting Putin a short five-­minute walk from the KGB's headquarters at 4 Angelikastrasse. As a case officer, the young Putin recruited sources, ran agents, gathered the latest scuttlebutt on East German leaders, and cabled his analysis back to Moscow. For a Soviet spy, it was fairly unremarkable stuff. What was more remarkable were the years that he lived there. Putin remained in Dresden, on the edge of the Soviet Empire, from 1985 until January 1990. He was, in other words, a witness to the collapse of a dictatorship, and of the Soviet system that followed soon thereafter. The German Democratic Republic was a postcard of a twentieth-­century totalitarian state. The Stasi had infiltrated all parts of life. It kept secret files on more than six million East Germans; in Dresden alone, the files the secret police compiled would stretch almost seven miles. According to the regime's own records, the East German government employed 97,000 people and had another 173,000 working as informants. Nearly one in every 60 citizens was somehow tied to the state's security apparatus. Even as a KGB officer, Putin was shocked at how totally invasive the government's surveillance was of its own citizens. He later described his time in East Germany as a real eye-­opener for me. I thought I was going to an Eastern European country, to the center of Europe, he told a Russian interviewer. But it wasn't that. It was a harshly totalitarian country, similar to the Soviet Union, only 30 years earlier. As a Soviet intelligence officer working in a client state, Putin very likely saw signs of East Germany's rot before others. He likely would have read the Stasi reports­many of which were sent unfiltered to Moscow­that painted an increasingly dark picture. These report...

Praise for William J. Dobson's The Dictator's Learning Curve:

“Intelligent and absorbing. . . . Mr. Dobson’s book, with luck, will find its way into the hands of people who aspire to be free.”
—The New York Times

“An essential perspective on a crucial struggle. . . . Dobson is that rare thinker who combines a gift for storytelling with an understanding of how the world works.”
—Fareed Zakaria 
 
“[Dobson] writes with exemplary clarity and a sharp eye for color. . . . Timely, authoritative, and as readable as a novel, this is one of the season’s most resonant books—not least because it ends on a note of guarded hope for the future.”
—Prospect

“A brilliant and original analysis of the nature of modern authoritarianism.”
—Anne Applebaum, author of Iron Curtain, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“[A] deft, incisive book. . . . The mix of perspectives results in an impressive overview of the global struggle between authoritarian power and determined advocates of political freedom.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Dobson has invested time and insight, from China to Venezuela, and Egypt to Russia, trying to capture the shape-changing nature of modern authoritarianism, and the resourcefulness and wit of its opponents. . . . [He] captures empathetically the skill and insight of modern neo-despots – in much the way their more successful opponents do. . . . Rare is the book on dictatorship that can end on an uplifting note that its narrative carefully substantiates.”
—Financial Times

“William J. Dobson’s exploration of the contest between contemporary dictatorships and those who rebel against them is valuable because it offers a sober analysis of both sides. Dobson traveled nearly 100,000 miles researching this book, which takes a close look at the face of modern authoritarianism. . . . His book may be about the struggle for freedom of other countries’ citizens, but there are lessons in it for the preservation of our own.”
—The Washington Post

“[A] thoughtful journey through formidable dictatorships of our time. . . . Instead of offering caricatures of vintage dictators, Dobson observes the more dangerous trend—of dictators adopting the form of democratic governance, while draining it of any substance.”
—The Independent

“Dobson’s is a terrific book to argue with. And it’s hard to think of a higher compliment for a book about Big Ideas.”
—Christian Science Monitor

“Says something really fresh about the world we live in.”
—Michael Burleigh, The Telegraph’s Best Books of 2012

“After a remarkable year in which citizens of a dozen countries have challenged their authoritarian governments, readers will welcome veteran journalist Dobson’s overview of the complicated dance of adaptation by the world’s dictators and those who resist their oppressive power. . . . A timely, valuable contribution to readers’ understanding of global unrest.”
—Booklist

“Colorful and sharply reported.”
—Bloomberg BusinessWeek

“Fascinating . . . some of Dobson's most astute observations come from his reporting about China. The Chinese communists, he concludes, are the least complacent of today's modern authoritarians.”
—Foreign Policy

“A vivid real-time portrait of the movement for democracy. Among its virtues, Dobson’s book clarifies the ways in which the recent challenge to dictatorship represents a coordinated worldwide effort, and the ways in which each country’s struggle is unique.”
—James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic and author of China Airborne

“It is hard to imagine a timelier book than this one. William Dobson provides a new framework and a new vocabulary for understanding modern authoritarianism, backed up by det…