Making the World Safe for Dictatorship

This is an excellent book that represents a major contribution to the field of study on authoritarian politics. Alexander Dukalskis has written a nuanced and highly illuminating study of the ways in which authoritarian regimes seek to manage their image abroad and shape the international environment to their own needs. The book includes a sophisticated theoretical framework that identifies the motivations, tactics, and outcomes behind these image management efforts, and it supports the theoretical arguments with innovative and original data. It is essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in the international politics of authoritarian rule. * Oisin Tansey, King's College London * As Making the World Safe for Dictatorship demonstrates, today's autocracies are not hermit kingdoms ruled by simple-minded dictators. To the contrary, they are sophisticated regimes that use transnational connections to shore up their power. With evidence from China, Rwanda, and North Korea, Dukalskis offers a compelling framework that integrates the repressive and image-making logics of transnational authoritarianism. By doing so, he radically expands our understanding of how such regimes operate in our globalized world. * Edward Schatz, University of Toronto, author of Slow Anti-Americanism * Making the World Safe for Dictatorship is a fascinating survey of the techniques of authoritarian image management, from propaganda and PR aimed at international audiences to the use of censorship, threats, and coercion abroad. Dukalskis' book sheds light on and provides a framework for analyzing an important global phenomenon: the use of extraterritorial mechanisms by authoritarian regimes to buttress and secure their rule. * Sheena Greitens, The University of Texas at Austin * This is an outstanding book! While we routinely analyze domestic authoritarian politics or study how international factors affect national politics, Dukalskis turns the tables. His ideas about how authoritarian regimes shape their image abroad are not only theoretically lucid and innovative, but the abundance of empirical information that is so skillfully weaved together is equally impressive. Dukalskis is to be applauded for a pioneering book that will serve as the reference point for a future research area that-nolens volens-will become more and more pressing. * Johannes Gerschewski, WZB Berlin Social Science Center *