rdkaplan2_AFP via Getty Images_iran protests AFP via Getty Images

Russia, Iran, and the Perils of Post-Autocracy

With Russia facing defeat on the battlefield and massive protests once again engulfing Iran, both countries’ regimes look vulnerable. But the end of tyranny is more likely to lead to a dangerous political vacuum than to a democratic transition.

STOCKBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS – Sometimes a news cycle constitutes more than just noise. It provides a loud, uncanny signal about what may lie beyond the horizon. That happened this month, when a more hopeful, dangerous, and radically different geopolitics came into view. Within literally a few days of each other, we have witnessed the near-collapse of the Russian army in Ukraine and the humiliation of a regime in the streets of Iranian cities.

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