The Authoritarian International: Learning, Adaptation, and Failure

Why are autocracies under pressure? Increasingly democratic states are being challenged by a resurgence in the number of autocracies. This presentation analyses a key aspect of this resurgence and the increased chances of autocratic survival in authoritarian learning. In analysing autocratic regimes in the post-Soviet space, Dr Stephen G. F. Hall, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics shows the importance of learning and direct cooperation between these regimes in offering alternative models to democracy and developing best survival practices. Examining how autocracies face the pressure of having to get things right every time – compared to the opposition who only need to get them right once, he uses the example of Russia and its war on Ukraine.