These innovations may reduce the number of bureaucrats autocrats need.
—
Seva Gunitsky,
Foreign Affairs,
1 Oct. 2026
In other countries that have recently experienced democratic backsliding, such as Turkey and Hungary, installing loyalists in the judiciary and in government agencies has played a key role in helping autocrats consolidate power.
Can an accurate story of a system of oppression be derived from sources created and preserved by the oppressors?
—
Drew Gilpin Faust,
The New York Review of Books,
19 Sep. 2026
For the left that supports the Palestinian cause, Muslims are the oppressed and the West – including Israel – are the oppressors… Whether Muslims hold conservative-religious views in this context is irrelevant.
No matter how powerful, dictators have always needed subordinates—censors, propagandists, security guards, police officers, intelligence analysts, and local bureaucrats—to carry out their orders.
—
Seva Gunitsky,
Foreign Affairs,
1 Oct. 2026
For years, America’s conversation about the Middle East revolved around terrorism, stability, and the supposedly binary choice between friendly dictators and dangerous Islamists.
Because, after all, as in all of Haber’s novels, the point is not really what is happening in the world but what is happening in the mind—in this case the mind of the pettiest of tyrants.
—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
1 July 2026
Aegon, dragged out of King’s Landing by spymaster Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) in an effort to save him from the fratricidal Aemond, gets an up-close look at the petty tyrants who have sprouted up in the countryside thanks to his impetuous rule.
Although regarded as one of the smaller competitors on the circuit, at a mere 6ft 3ins and around 24st, Bishop is still regarded as one of Britain’s best strongmen, with a record in the deadlift of 470kg.
—
Rob Tanner,
New York Times,
8 Sep. 2026
The cross was not meant to be a stage prop for strongmen.
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