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Marcel Dirsus will be in conversation with Allan Behm on his book How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive.

Strongmen are rising. Democracies are faltering. How does tyranny end? Tyrants project invincibility, but all of them fall. This is because they face critical weaknesses that can form a fatal trap. Whether it's their inner circle turning against them or resentment of elites in the military, the masses alienated by cronyism or revolutionaries plotting in exile, tyrants always have more enemies than friends. And when they fall tyrants don't quietly retire - they face exile, prison or death. What happens in the aftermath can change the fate of a nation.

Meeting with coup leaders, dissidents and soldiers, political scientist Marcel Dirsus draws on extraordinary interviews to examine the workings and malfunctions of tyrants. We hear from a revolutionary (codename 'Satan') who risked Stasi capture to undermine an oppressive regime, an unapologetic former leader of a Burundian rebel group which carried out a massacre, and an American-Gambian activist who plotted to liberate his homeland on breaks during his construction job.

But understanding dictators isn't enough. How Tyrants Fall , an Economist Best Book of 2024. is the gripping, deeply researched blueprint for how to bring them down.

“A ‘blueprint’ for bringing dictators down that could equally function as a Machiavellian manual for staying in power” . The Guardian

Dr. Marcel Dirsus is a political scientist who writes The Hundred, a politics newsletter. In addition to being a Non-Resident Fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University in Germany, he is a member of the Standing Expert Committee, Terrorism and Interior Security, at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. He has advised democratic governments, foundations, multinational corporations and international organisations like NATO and the OECD. His writing and research has been featured by Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, BBC, CNN, The Atlantic, Reuters and many others. Dirsus holds a doctorate in political science from Kiel University and a Master’s of Science in Russian & East European Studies from the University of Oxford. 

Allan Behm, Director, International & Security Affairs Program at the Australia Institute, Canberra, specialises in international and security policy development, political and security risk evaluation, policy analysis and development, and negotiating the policy/politics interface. Following a career spanning nearly 30 years in the Australian Public Service, he was Chief of Staff to Minister for Climate Change and Industry Greg Combet (2009 to 2013) and senior advisor to the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong (2017–19). He has a significant publishing record and is a respected commentator in both the electronic and print media.

Hugh Mackay AO, social psychologist and bestselling author, will give the vote of thanks.

Books are available for signing from 5.30pm and again after the event.

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