Lawfare Archive: Charles Dunst on Defeating the Dictators
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
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Summary
From March 21, 2023: By many accounts, the United States is living through a new era of competition—not just between major powers and strategic rivals, but between ideologies. Around the world, many authoritarian governments seem to be on the rise, even as many liberal democracies are facing a crisis of confidence, including, by some accounts, here in the United States.
In a new book entitled, “Defeating the Dictators,” Charles Dunst, a former journalist and current deputy director of research and analytics at The Asia Group, lays out what he sees as the right strategy for making democracies more effective and defeating the appeal of authoritarian government. Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sat down with him to discuss his new book, the importance he places on Singapore as a case study, and how the domestic remedies he focuses on translate into foreign policy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.4 | To access an ad-free version of the Lawfare podcast, become a material supporter of Lawfare at |
| 0:11.5 | patreon.com slash lawfare. That's patreon.com slash lawfare. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out Lawfare's other podcast offerings, Rational Security, Chatter, |
| 0:25.2 | Lawfare No Bull, and The Aftermath. |
| 0:31.8 | Hi there, this is Jake Humphrey from the High Performance Podcast. Our podcast is currently sponsored by Thriver, the app that |
| 0:38.5 | helps you listen to your blood and get personalized guidance on how to optimize your health and fitness. |
| 0:44.3 | Every Thriver report is rooted in practical advice, what to eat more or less of, how to exercise, |
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| 0:59.8 | That's Thriver-I-V-A-D-Co. |
| 1:03.9 | Thriver. |
| 1:04.5 | Listen to your blood. I'm Carolyn Quinnett, Internet Lawfare with an episode from the Lawfare Archive for March 23, 2025. |
| 1:26.3 | In the two months since President Donald Trump took office, his campaign promises |
| 1:30.7 | have manifested in attacks on pillars of democracy, with some warning of a shift towards |
| 1:36.0 | authoritarianism and perhaps autocracy. For today's archive episode, I select an episode from |
| 1:42.5 | March 21st, 2003, in which Scott R. Anderson |
| 1:47.0 | sat down with Charles Dunst, author of Defeating the Dictators, which explores the rise of autocracy |
| 1:53.0 | worldwide and how democracies can combat it. They discussed how to make democracies more effective, |
| 1:59.0 | the importance of Singapore as a case study, |
| 2:01.9 | and how domestic remedies translate into foreign policy. |
| 2:13.9 | I'm Scott R. Anderson, and this is the Lawfare podcast from March 21, 2023. |
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