'Timely laser-sharp and unsettling... A must read' - Peter Frankopan author of The Silk Roads
We are in a new era. Authoritarian leaders have become a central feature of global politics.
Since 2000 self-styled strongmen have risen to power in capitals as diverse as Moscow Beijing
Delhi Brasilia Budapest Ankara Riyadh and Washington. These leaders are nationalists and
social conservatives with little tolerance for minorities dissent or the interests of
foreigners. At home they claim to stand up for ordinary people against globalist elites
abroad they posture as the embodiments of their nations. And everywhere they go they
encourage a cult of personality. These leaders are not just operating in authoritarian
political systems but have begun to emerge in the heartlands of liberal democracy. While the EU
referendum and election of Donald Trump in 2016 mark a watershed the new era started at the
beginning of the millennium when Vladimir Putin took power in Russia. How and why did this new
style of strongman leadership arrive? How likely is it to lead to war or economic collapse? And
what forces are in place not only to keep these strongmen in check but to reverse the trend?
From Trump Putin and Bolsonaro to Erdogan Xi and Modi The Age of the Strongman provides the
first truly global treatment of the new nationalism and offers a bold new paradigm for
understanding our world
