How Western Theories of Authoritarian Fragility Mask Global Extraction and Power Asymmetries
Challenging the Dominant Lens on Strongman Rule and Revealing the Enduring Role of Colonial Legacies in Shaping Modern Geopolitics In an age marked by the return of multipolar tensions and the persistence of authoritarian governance across much of the world, Stephen Kotkin’s influential thesis on the “weakness of the strongman” has become a cornerstone of Western political analysis. Kotkin argues that regimes led by singular, unaccountable leaders inevitably contain the seeds of their own destruction through a series of interlocking internal pathologies: distorted information flows, perpetual succession crises, deliberate institutional hollowing, negative elite selection, and a fundamental absence of mechanisms for self-correction. This framework, echoed and amplified by prominent liberal thinkers, portrays authoritarianism not as a robust alternative but as a high-risk gamble destined for catastrophic failure once external shocks arrive. The narrative resonates deeply in policy circ...