We look back on another successful edition of our Annual Research Night, featuring Pulitzer Prize Winner Anne Applebaum. In her keynote she described a new era of autocracies, characterized by the way their leaders work together. Today, autocracies are run by sophisticated networks whose members do not operate like a bloc, but rather like an agglomeration of companies – call it Autocracy Inc. To protect liberal democracy, we need to understand how these networks operate and how they undermine democratic institutions. Moreover, we need to understand that conventional methods of keeping autocrats in check no longer work. “Too often sanctions are allowed to deteriorate over time – and just as often, autocracies help one other to get around them.” Applebaum pointed out. In fact, we haven’t got the tools yet, to fit their new tactics.
According to Applebaum, the first thing we have to do is make sure that the rules the regimes are supposed to follow also apply to us. Take corruption, for example – it is not just a foreign policy issue. “If we are serious about it in the democratic world than we have to change our own law so that Kazakhs or Venezuelans can’t purchase property anonymously in London or Zurich or hide money in South Dakota”, she explained. This means that we need to shut down tax havens and enforce money laundering laws, stop selling security and surveillance technology to autocracies and maybe think about divesting from the most vicious regimes altogether.
A year and a half after the invasion of Ukraine, Anne Applebaum sees cause for optimism. Despite resorting to Stalin’s totalitarian arsenal, Putin’s war aims have failed. A growing part of the Russian elite also recognizes this.
