Spin Dictators

 Spindictators is one of those rare books where the title tells you all you need to know about the book. It talks about a more modern form of totalitarianism, where the authoritarians in power use spin rather than fear to maintain their grip on their populace. It  is written by political scientists, so they do backup their thesis with research, it seems to be attached to idealistic. Unfortunately, the book was released before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. I say unfortunately because Putin is held up as the ultimate example of someone who doesn't use fear to control the population of his country, but uses spin to do so. Putin was of course really great at doing so for many years. And for many years he was much more effective than a more brutal dictator such as Hitler. He was able to expand his control domestically, destabilize neighbors such as Georgia, and Ukraine, and almost have de facto control over Belarus. In addition to this, while being able to achieve his strategic goals abroad by weakening the European Union by supporting far right nationalists movements which eventually led to Brexit, and sewing division in the United States by heightening polarization. It was this that led him to annex Crimea and tear off chunks of Ukraine with barely any protest from his neighbors. But he overreached. It's unclear why exactly he chose to invade Ukraine, but with the Invasion the mask of a spin dictator came off, and he revealed himself to be a real dictator - not only did he murder innocent civilians in indiscriminate bombing of Ukraine, but he also sent thousands of his own soldiers to die for very little territorial gain. I think that's the problem with the argument that are more modern dictators are not fear dictators anymore, but they are spin dictators. Sure, a dictator will say whatever they want to maintain control, and some will have a more calculated approach to the use of violence, and others will be more brutal. However, think the fact that a person is a dictator and does not follow the rule of law will ultimately ensure that violence ensues. It's kind of like the movie the Purge except for it's happening in the psyche of one individual. The book does a good job of discussing two things, though. The first is that it lays bare the hypocrisy of countries like the United States and organizations like the European Union. For example, the United States lost a lot of credibility over the years with brutal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and earlier Vietnam. These military interventions were costly, and at least as brutal as the regimes they were trying to topple. The European Union is criticized for its lack of institutional procedures to deal with countries that bend or break the rules, such as Poland or Hungary. The other good thing about the book is that it ends with suggestions for dealing with these been dictators, who are wolves in sheep's clothing. I don't agree with everything, for example there is the suggestion that only individuals should be sanctioned - not whole countries or economies. This ignores the situation where any kind of economic activity only supports the regime. The glaring examples are North Korea, and Russia. Putin was able to be so successful for so long because Russia was like a drug dealer with fossil fuels to Europe, Europe looked the other way because of this, putting its security in jeopardy. So in my opinion it is better to have free trade with free economies that exist in free societies, not free trade with dictatorships. The suggestion that I liked was that there should be a new organization of countries that are truly democratic and that this organization would work to expand democracies throughout the world not by using Force like Americans have previously done, but by supporting and encouraging the development of civil societies. I think that this might be the future there might be a sort of European Union of democracies so North America Europe Japan Australia might be united in some sort of organization. And this could expand as more countries became more democratic. But despite my criticisms I think it's an interesting read and if you are interested in politics or history it might be worth your while. Leverton Review 3/5