Charles Dunst on Defeating the Dictators
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2023
⏱️ 57 minutes
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Summary
By many accounts, the United States is living through a new era of competition—not just between major powers and strategic rivals, but between ideologies. Around the world, many authoritarian governments seem to be on the rise, even as many liberal democracies are facing a crisis of confidence, including, by some accounts, here in the United States.
In a new book entitled, “Defeating the Dictators,” Charles Dunst, a former journalist and current deputy director of research and analytics at The Asia Group, lays out what he sees as the right strategy for making democracies more effective and defeating the appeal of authoritarian government. Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sat down with him to discuss his new book, the importance he places on Singapore as a case study, and how the domestic remedies he focuses on translate into foreign policy.
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Transcript
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| 0:33.0 | It's something I've been thinking about a lot in terms of autocracies, |
| 0:37.0 | where if you think about the most functional ones, so, again, Singapore, maybe to some extent, the U.E., Saudi Arabia, |
| 0:43.0 | they can implement policy efficiently, but they can also implement really bad policy efficiently, |
| 0:49.0 | because the RRNO checks and balances a decision making up top, particularly when decisions are being made by one person. |
| 0:55.0 | Like that myth, that myth of autocratic efficiency, the myth that an autocrite would come in and just fix everything in terms of meritocracy, |
| 1:03.0 | or in terms of accountability, or in terms of infrastructure, is something we need to push back against. |
| 1:09.0 | But I do think that even within the kind of anti-democratic movements in the United States or in Europe, |
| 1:16.0 | as much as perhaps the cultural issues do garner headlines, there is rooted in there a sense of dissatisfaction |
| 1:23.0 | with the way government has been delivering for them, and a sense that something new, |
| 1:27.0 | and that something new being an illiberal and maybe even autocratic leader, would deliver better. |
| 1:32.0 | I'm Scott Ar Anderson, and this is the LawFair podcast from March 21st, 2023. |
| 1:38.0 | By many accounts, the United States is living through a new era of competition, |
| 1:42.0 | not just between the major powers and strategic rivals, but between ideologies. |
| 1:47.0 | Around the world, many authoritarian governments seem to be on the rise, even as many liberal democracies are facing a crisis of confidence, |
| 1:55.0 | including by some accounts here in the United States. |
... |
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