Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World
Casey Michel
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
A stunning investigation and indictment of a segment of the United States' foreign lobbying industry, and the threat to end democracy.
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 Nazis on how to sway American audiences. They include people like Paul Manafort, who invented lobbying as we know it--and who then took his talents to autocrats from Ukraine to the Philippines, and then back to the White House. And they now include an increasing number of Americans elsewhere: in law firms and consultancies, among PR specialists and former lawmakers, and even within think tanks and universities. In Foreign Agents, Casey Michel shines a light on these foreign lobbyists as some of them--after decades of installing dictators and corrupting American policy--embark on their next mission: to end America's democratic experiment, once and for all.Product Details
Price
$30.00
$27.90
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Publish Date
August 27, 2024
Pages
368
Dimensions
6.38 X 9.39 X 1.21 inches | 1.2 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781250286055
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Casey Michel is an author, journalist, and director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program with the Human Rights Foundation. He is the author of American Kleptocracy, named by The Economist as one of the "best books to read to understand financial crime." His writing on offshoring, foreign lobbying, authoritarianism, and illicit wealth has appeared in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and The Washington Post, among other outlets, and he has appeared on NPR, BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, among other stations. He has also testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the links between illicit financial networks and national security. He received his Master's degree in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies from Columbia University's Harriman Institute, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in northern Kazakhstan. Foreign Agents is his second book.
Reviews
Foreign Policy, Most Anticipated Books of 2024
"For years, foreign lobbyists have acted as key henchmen for dictators around the world, enriching and entrenching those regimes that much further. Now, Casey Michel shines much-needed light on these foreign lobbyists--and these enablers who are making it easier for despots around the world to expand their reach. Full of sordid tales and striking details, Foreign Agents shows how these foreign lobbyists are, in many ways, just as reprehensible as the dictators they represent--and maybe even more so." --Sir Bill Browder, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Notice and Freezing Order"An eye-opening depiction of an industry that has largely defied efforts to keep it in check." --The Economist "[A] masterful exposé.... Michel's portrait of endemic corruption is disturbing; lobbying firms, he finds, do little more than serve as conduits for channeling foreign bribes to American officials. The result is a hard-hitting takedown of a cynical industry." --Publishers Weekly (starred) "A timely exposé of American lobbyists who degrade democracy and weaken human rights. In the spirit of Progressive Era muckrakers, Michel reveals the shamelessness, venality, and moral turpitude of those who work to influence federal legislators and the public in order to advance antidemocratic foreign interests... A provocative and alarming account of the political cesspool known as foreign lobbying." --Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Important and well-documented." --Booklist "Casey Michel's lively new book Foreign Agents unravels the incentives and temptations that have led so many leading American figures to lobby on behalf of foreign governments... On a deep and really quite disturbing level, this is a book about how much people are willing to pay to have the truth subverted for their benefit and how eagerly some people will do it for the right price." --LA Times
"[Foreign Agents] reckons with the legacy of [Ivy Lee], the man who helped burnish the reputations of Soviets, Nazis and other US adversaries... Michel convincingly argues more regulation is necessary for the foreign lobbying industry." --Responsible Statecraft
"The partnership of lawyers and lawmakers has captured much of US domestic policy. Casey Michel's Foreign Agents details how this unholy American alliance threatens democracies around the world." --Ian Bremmer "An unprecedented and shocking look at the law firms, PR specialists, consultants, and former officials who've helped the enemies of democracy succeed." --Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander S. Vindman, author of Here, Right Matters
"Michel shines an urgent spotlight on the shadowy world of foreign lobbying.... Foreign Agents is a searing polemic against the culture of American foreign lobbying with the high-stakes twists and turns of a Hollywood thriller, written by a foremost authority on the matter." --Christopher Miller, author of The War Came to Us: Life and Death in Ukraine
"Foreign Agents is the most complete, compelling and concerning study of foreign influence in American government to date. From the original foreign agent--Ivy Lee--to the most infamous--Paul Manafort--Casey Michel chronicles an alarming trend that should worry all Americans." --Brody Mullins, author of The Wolves of K Street Praise for American Kleptocracy: "An indefatigable young American journalist who has virtually cornered the international kleptocracy beat on the US end of the black aquifer." --The Los Angeles Review of Books "Brilliantly clear." --Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic "Fluid, coherent and entertaining." --The Economist "[Michel] deserves praise for going beyond moralising and pointing out how an industry geared to enabling the corrupt is not just unsavoury but can hurt a country's real economic prospects." --Financial Times "Michel's diligent dissection is...a capable, eye-opening account of laissez faire financial laws and practices that serve the interest of criminals alone." --Kirkus Reviews
