Huffington Post: The Dictator’s Dead Pool for 2013: Will China’s Investments Pay Off in Political Clout?
(This originally appeared as “The Dictator’s Dead Pool for 2013” on the Huffington Post.)
The world rarely mourns dead dictators. The death of an authoritarian ruler usually means chaos and more suffering for the people they ruled. A year ago I drafted a list of the aging and sickly dictators of this world whose days were numbered for natural reasons. Political enemies often work to end a dictator’s tenure early. And a dead dictator can still seem to exert influence from beyond the grave; even they are mortal.