This book investigates the specific international mechanisms and external influences that facilitate the survival and consolidation of authoritarian regimes. Oisín Tansey, a scholar of comparative politics, utilizes a framework of international relations theory to analyze how non-democratic states interact with the global system. He examines how external actors, ranging from regional powers to international organizations, provide material and political support that bolsters autocratic rule against domestic opposition.

Experts in international relations identify this work as a rigorous contribution to the study of democratic backsliding and autocratic persistence. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is tailored for students and researchers of political science.