Dartmouth Events

Professor of History and International Affairs, Princeton University

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

4:30-6:00pm

041 Haldeman Center

Authoritarian regimes look stable, then they suddenly collapse. They look rickety, then they endure. How should we understand the basic nature and potential staying power of nondemocratic states? Why and how do some topple? What generally follows in their wake? What are the key variations between China, Russia, and Middle Eastern states? Can we devise typologies and observable patterns for authoritarian regimes? Where is the study of authoritarian regimes today?

bio. Stephen Kotkin writes about power and the paradoxes of authoritarian regimes across the globe, how they are often simultaneously powerful and brittle, stable and unstable, long-lasting yet susceptible to precipitous collapse. Outside Princeton, he has worked for several foundations on higher education reform, mostly in the Communist countries, and serves as a consultant for investors in emerging markets. His current projects include a history of the world, as seen from Stalin.s desk.

For more information contact the Dickey Center for International Understanding 603- 646-2023 dickey.dartmouth.edu