Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, journalist and staff writer at The Atlantic, specialising in authoritarianism, disinformation and the fragility of democracies. A senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University's SNF Agora Institute, she has authored acclaimed works including Gulag: A History, Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, and the bestsellers Twilight of Democracy and Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. Through her writing, speaking engagements and academic work, she equips leaders and audiences with the historical context and contemporary analysis needed to navigate today's volatile political landscape, understand the tactics of authoritarian regimes, and recognise the threats facing democratic institutions worldwide.

When Anne Applebaum covered the collapse of communism as Warsaw correspondent for The Economist between 1988 and 1991, she witnessed firsthand the forces that would define her life's work: the fragility of democracy, the resilience of authoritarianism, and the power of propaganda to reshape political reality. That early reporting experience in Eastern Europe laid the foundation for a career that has produced some of the most essential historical and contemporary analysis of autocracy and democratic decline. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag: A History remains the definitive account of Soviet concentration camps, whilst Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize, proved what many suspected: Stalin set out to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry. Her recent bestsellers, Twilight of Democracy and Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, examine how authoritarian regimes operate in the 21st century and why democracies fail from within.

Anne's credentials extend well beyond her award-winning books. As a staff writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University's SNF Agora Institute, she produces rigorous analysis of contemporary authoritarianism and disinformation. Her 15 years as a Washington Post columnist and former roles as deputy editor of The Spectator and political editor of the Evening Standard have honed her ability to translate complex geopolitical shifts into accessible, actionable insight. She has held academic positions including Visiting Professor of Practice at the London School of Economics, where she led programmes on disinformation and 21st century propaganda, and served as Director of the Transitions Forum at the Legatum Institute. A Yale graduate and Marshall Scholar at LSE and St. Antony's College, Oxford, Anne divides her time between London and Warsaw, maintaining the transatlantic and Eastern European perspective that makes her analysis uniquely valuable.

Through her speaking engagements, Anne equips audiences with the historical context and contemporary understanding needed to navigate today's volatile political landscape. She connects the patterns of 20th century totalitarianism to modern threats facing democratic institutions, helping leaders recognise the tactics authoritarian regimes use to undermine free societies and independent journalism. Her presentations move beyond diagnosis to explore practical responses, drawing on her academic research and decades of international reporting to show organisations and individuals how to defend democratic values in an era of sophisticated disinformation. Audiences leave with sharper analytical tools, deeper historical perspective, and renewed clarity about the choices that will determine whether democracies thrive or decline in the decades ahead.