Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and journalist, recognized for her extensive work on Communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. After beginning her distinguished career as a correspondent for The Economist in Warsaw, Poland in 1988, Anne Applebaum went on to cover pivotal historical events as a foreign correspondent for The Independent, including the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent collapse of communism across Eastern Europe. Transitioning into editorial leadership, she served as foreign editor and then deputy editor for The Spectator magazine in London, before becoming the political editor of the Evening Standard. Her insightful observations from this period culminated in her first book, ‘Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe,’ a travelogue exploring post-Soviet nationalism, published in 1994.

In 2020, Applebaum joined The Atlantic as a staff writer, where she continues to offer incisive commentary on global politics. The same year, she released ‘Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism,’ a critically acclaimed examination of democratic decline. Her most recent contribution, “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World,” was published in 2024, delving into the rise of modern autocracies. This latest work further cemented her global influence, leading to her being awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels in 2024, recognizing her impactful insights into contemporary political challenges.