'Political technology' is a Russian term for the professional engineering of politics. It has turned Russian politics into theatre and propaganda, and metastasised to take over foreign policy and weaponise history. The war against Ukraine is one outcome. In the West, spin doctors and political consultants do more than influence media or run campaigns: they have also helped build parallel universes of alternative political reality. Hungary has used political technology to dismantle democracy. The BJP in India has used it to consolidate unprecedented power. Different countries learn from each other. Some types of political technology have become notorious, like troll farms or data mining; but there is now a global wholesale industry selling a range of manipulation techniques, from astroturfing to fake parties to propaganda apps. This book shows that 'political technology' is about much more than online disinformation: it is about whole new industries of political engineering.

Introduction; 1. Russia: the home of political technology; 2. America: all that is solid melts into money; 3. Trump and after; 4. Globalisation: political technologists abroad; 5. Hungary: everything in the pot; 6. Ukraine: A surprisingly comfortable home for the black arts; 7. The post-Soviet playground; 8. China and India; 9. Does political technology work; Conclusions.

Andrew Wilson is Professor of Ukrainian Studies in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London. His first book on political technology was Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Former USSR (2005).