BLUF
In this article, Freedman, an expert on strategy, argues that autocrats make catastrophic decisions because people around them tell them what they want to hear, not what they need to hear—further, the press and TV act as an echo chamber for the autocrats' views. Unlike autocracies, leaders in western liberal democracies receive lots of criticism.Summary
This article by Peter Beaumont, writing for The Guardian, makes the following points:
- Freedman says the flawed thinking behind Russia's invasion stems from the inability of autocracies to take responsibility for their mistakes.
- In Freedman's view, a key failure of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is that the key figures around Putin either did not understand Ukraine or acted as an echo chamber for Putin's views.
References
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- RUSSIAN-UKRAINE CONFLICT—RAAF RUNWAY COLLECTION
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References from the Web:
- MAY 2022 How to Build a Twenty-first-Century Tyrant—The New Yorker
- JUN 2022 Not Built For Purpose: The Russian Military’s Ill-Fated Force Design—War on the Rocks
- JUL 2022 How Russia's current war in Ukraine echoes its Crimean War of the 1850s—NPR
- AUG 2022 Russia’s war in Ukraine started 6 months ago — and there appears to be no end in sight—CNBC
Source: Guardian, The
- Link to Source: The Guardian
- Media Check: The Guardian - Media Bias/Fact Check (mediabiasfactcheck.com)
