Making the World Safe for Dictatorship

Alexander Dukalskis

Provides a new theoretical framework that will change the way we think about the international dimensions of authoritarianism
Introduces the Authoritarian Actions Abroad Database (AAAD), which features new data on all instances of authoritarian states repressing critical exiles abroad between 1991 and 2019
Includes a diverse array of data based on interviews, examination of public relations filings with the United States government, analysis of authoritarian propaganda, media frequency analysis, and speeches and statements by authoritarian leaders

Making the World Safe for Dictatorship

Alexander Dukalskis

Description

Authoritarian states work hard to manage their images abroad. They invest in foreign-facing media, hire public relations firms, tout their popular celebrities, and showcase their successes to elite and popular foreign audiences. However, there is a dark side to these efforts that is sometimes overlooked. Authoritarian states try to obscure or censor bad news about their governments and often discredit their critics abroad. In extreme cases, authoritarian states intimidate, physically attack, or even murder their opponents overseas. All states attempt to manage their global image to some degree, but authoritarian states in the post-Cold War era have special incentives to do so given the predominance of democracy as an international norm.

This book is about how authoritarian states manage their image abroad using both "promotional" tactics of persuasion and "obstructive" tactics of repression. Alexander Dukalskis looks at the tactics that authoritarian states use for image management and the ways in which their strategies vary from one state to another. Moreover, Dukalskis looks at the degree to which some authoritarian states succeed in using image management to enhance their internal and external security, and, in turn, to make their world safe for dictatorship.

Making the World Safe for Dictatorship uses a diverse array of data, including interviews, cross-national data on extraterritorial repression, examination of public relations filings with the United States government, analysis of authoritarian propaganda, media frequency analysis, and speeches and statements by authoritarian leaders. Dukalskis also builds a new dataset--the Authoritarian Actions Abroad Database--that uses publicly available information to categorize nearly 1,200 instances in which authoritarian states repressed their critical exiles abroad, ranging from vague threats to confirmed assassinations. The book looks closely at three cases, China, North Korea, and Rwanda, to understand in more detail how authoritarian states manage their image abroad using combinations of promotional and obstructive tactics. The result is a new way of thinking about the international dimensions of authoritarian politics.

Making the World Safe for Dictatorship

Alexander Dukalskis

Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 - Introduction: Making the World Safe for Dictatorship
Chapter 2 - The Motivations Behind Authoritarian Image Management
Chapter 3 - Mechanisms of Authoritarian Image Management
Chapter 4 - Selling Dictatorship & Silencing Dissent: A Global Snapshot
Chapter 5 - Controlling Critical Messengers: Foreign Correspondents in China
Chapter 6 - Promoting & Controlling the China Dream: China's External Propaganda and Repression
Chapter 7 - Projecting Peace & Prosperity: Authoritarian Image Management and RPF Rwanda
Chapter 8 - Coping with a Post-Communist World: North Korea
Chapter 9 - Conclusion: Looking Backward, Forward, and Inward
References
Appendix 1: PR & Lobbying Data by Authoritarian States in the United States, 2018-2019
Appendix 2: Authoritarian Actions Abroad Database (AAAD) - Codebook
Appendix 3: Pro-DPRK Groups with Internet Presences

Making the World Safe for Dictatorship

Alexander Dukalskis

Author Information

Alexander Dukalskis is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin. His research and teaching interests include authoritarianism, Asian politics, and human rights. His work has been published in several leading journals, including Government & Opposition, Review of International Studies, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Peace Research, and Democratization. His first book, The Authoritarian Public Sphere: Legitimation and Autocratic Power in North Korea, Burma, and China, was published in 2017.

Making the World Safe for Dictatorship

Alexander Dukalskis

Reviews and Awards

"Alexander Dukalskis's intriguing book, in which he puts forward the concept of 'authoritarian image management', defined as 'comprising efforts by the state or its proxies to enhance or protect the legitimacy of the state's political system for audiences outside its borders'." -- Falk Hartig, International Affairs

"It is difficult to combine approaches from Comparative Politics and International Relations in ways that both speak to contemporary issues, yet also provide scholars with a framework that could be applied to other cases. Dukalskis deftly accomplishes this task in Making the World Safe for Dictatorship." -- Thomas Bruce, Democratization

"Intriguing" -- G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

"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

"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

"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

"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." -- Oisín Tansey, King's College London