"Dancing on Bones:" How Autocrats Exploit History to Stay in Power
In this edition of Wilson Center NOW, we are joined by Katie Stallard, Wilson Center Global Fellow and Senior Editor for China and Global Affairs at the New Statesman. She discusses her new book, Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea. The book examines how autocrats use history and propaganda to maintain power and argues that, “if we want to understand where these three nuclear powers are heading, we must understand the stories they are telling their citizens about the past.”
For more about the book, check out this Books at Wilson event, Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea, featuring author Katie Stallard in conversation with Kissinger Institute on China and the United States director Robert Daly.
Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea
History didn't end. Democracy didn't triumph. America's leading role in the world is no longer assured. Instead, autocrats and populist strongmen are on the rise, and the global order established after 1945 is under attack. This is the phenomenon Katie Stallard tackles in Dancing on Bones, as she examines how the leaders of China, Russia, and North Korea manipulate the past to serve the present and secure the future of authoritarian rule.
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Indo-Pacific Program
The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region. Read more
Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy
The Center for Korean History and Public Policy was established in 2015 with the generous support of the Hyundai Motor Company and the Korea Foundation to provide a coherent, long-term platform for improving historical understanding of Korea and informing the public policy debate on the Korean peninsula in the United States and beyond. Read more
History and Public Policy Program
The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs. Read more
