Edward Goldring, "Purges: How Dictators Fight to Survive" (Cornell UP, 2026)

Purges: How Dictators Fight to Survive

(Cornell University Press, 2026) by Dr. Edward Goldring delves into one

of the key tactics that autocrats deploy to maintain power: the removal

of individuals from within the regime.

From Kim Jong Un's

execution of his uncle to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's removal of over a

hundred Turkish generals, purges bear significant consequences for the

survival and endurance of autocrats. Yet much remains unknown about why

dictators use purges and whether they achieve their intended effects.

Drawing

on an original global dataset on civilian and military elite purges in

dictatorships in addition to case studies spanning North and South Korea