The dirty little secret of autocratic regimes like those of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping is that they can’t really operate effectively without the services provided by willing Western collaborators.
For all their bluster, these dictators are highly dependent upon the Western bankers and lawyers who launder their money, the Western PR firms who launder their reputations, and the Western consultants who lobby for their interests.
As we’ll see, this is an old problem for Western democracies. But it is a problem that has become more acute, and more dangerous, in the age of globalization.
On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Casey Michel, author of the newly published and must-read book Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World, about the influence operations autocrats deploy in the West.
SHOW NOTES
Casey Michel’s new book Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World can be purchased here. His 2021 book American Kleptocracy: How The US Created the Greatest Money Laundering Machine in History can be purchased here. Casey’s published works can be accessed here.
The Power Vertical Newsletter on Substack can be accessed here. Recently published work by Brian Whitmore can be accessed here, here, and here.
Information about recent indictments under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) or for sanctions violations can be accessed here, here, here, and here.