Gideon, we used to say that there wasn't a core ideology to post-Cold War authoritarianism, that they were often coherent, they were intellectually poor, there wasn't much to it. But in your book, you do mention that there are themes that evolved over the years. I'm specifically thinking of themes that seem to resonate with foreign audiences, the anti-woke theme, the anti-LGBT theme, specifically in the context of the Ukrainian war. A certain anti-imperialist, anti-Western hegemony, these are very different points that appeal either to very conservative audiences or to leftist audiences. But there does seem to be a sort of an ideological core here. What would you say if there is such a thing as an ideological core to contemporary authoritarianism,

what would that be? I think the anti-woke stuff is relatively recent, and it's interesting to kind of figure out how opportunistic it is and how deeply felt. But I would say going back a bit that the core thing is nationalism. It's a kind of nostalgic nationalism so that when Trump says, make America great again, in different ways, all of these leaders are saying something similar. I mean, Putin is trying to make Russia great again. She actually speaks about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people. Erdogan has this vision of Ottoman Turkey before Ataturk and Modi. I mean, nostalgia goes back 800 years, I think, not just before the British, but before the Mogul Empire. But they all have this idea that the country was great, should be great again. And some combination of sort of internal, external enemies have done it down and need to be overcome. And oddly enough, nationalism has a sort of cross-border appeal, which sounds a bit paradoxical. But I think in an era of big global institutions, such as the EU, there is an audience to say, there's a guy out there who really sticks up for his nation. He's not a globalist. He's not embraced. And that was, I think, part of Putin's appeal before all of this happened. And I don't think one should forget that Putin had a considerable international fan club before most of which is lost by now. I mean, just two days before the invasion, Trump caught him a genius. Nigel Farage, an interview with GQ, I think, asked the name

of his political war.