Autocracy, Inc.

The 2024 Peace Prize winner, Anne Appelbaum, journalist and historian, is an expert on Eastern European history and authoritarian systems.

Her books 'Gulag' in 2003, 'Iron Curtain' in 2012, and others more have all become bestsellers.

'Autocracy Inc. – The dictators who want to run the world' reads like a thriller, but is by no means fiction; it describes and analyzes the political entanglements of the present. Well-researched, paragraph by paragraph, point by point. At the end of the book, there are over 20 pages of concrete sources and evidence of her statements.

To the uninitiated, autocrats in their narcissism appear to be isolated actors in some state of the world - Anne Appebaum proves the opposite. Autocrats are only able to keep themselves in power by being closely interwoven at various levels. And what's more, this is the only way they can live a life of pomp and circumstance and support each other in disenfranchising and disempowering their peoples and exploiting the country's resources for themselves and their next kleptocratic clique.

It is also worth noting, as Appelbaum demonstrates, that autocracies also benefit significantly from the self-interest of Western companies, institutions and, above all, banks. The book cites many specific cases and shares insights that are essential management knowledge for value-based managers.

In addition to the phenomenon of the money laundering machine (often via the real estate route), the author also highlights the mechanisms of the information laundering machine, which has increased significantly in recent years and now plays an equally crucial role. Fake news is not only spread by the presumed channels, but it is precisely here that the networking of autocrats is at work, in which false information is generated in one authoritarian system and then spread in others through their own mouthpieces and in various national languages as 'original'. The (non-existent) truth content and the original source can no longer be understood by the usual reader in today's speed of reception and dissemination.

Appelbaum shows very clearly the immense destructive effects for the economy and society that these kleptocracies cause through their close cooperation with each other, but also through the clever exploitation of the self-interests of companies in democratic states.

It also encourages the necessary much more intensive cooperation between the organizations and states of democratic countries to maintain comprehensible values and principles for the benefit of all, in order to avoid becoming a pawn in the hands of autocrats.

'Autocracy, Inc.' is recommended to all managers who want to protect their own organizations from becoming conscious and unconscious accomplices of autocrats. It provides deep insights into the structures and mechanisms. It is in any case educational, enlightening for the personal level of knowledge and the understanding gained can help to make better decisions in difficult or opaque business situations. Recommended for all managers who have already reached management positions or have the ambition to reach positions of responsibility. Also recommended for anyone working in international sales roles.

If you would like to reflect on value-based leadership and ethical conduct of business for yourself and/or your leadership team, please contact the Tripl3Leader team. We are happy to help you finding you own unique path of success.