Archive - July 17, 2024

Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World by Casey Michel (Kazakstan 2011) St. Martins Press August 2024 $14.99 (Kindle); $17.71 (Audiobook); $27.90 (Hardcover)       For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they’ve not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they’ve secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself. These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. These foreign lobbyists include figures like Ivy Lee, the inventor of the public relations industry—a man who whitewashed Mussolini, opened doors to the Soviets, and advised the . . .