Christian Gläßel

Dr Christian Gläßel

Small Group Project 2024-25

Spinning Dictatorship: Public Relations & Lobbying in Democracies by Authoritarian States

This project investigates authoritarian regimes hiring of public relations and lobbying firms (PRLF) in democracies. Previous research suggests that many autocrats draw on Western PRLFs to improve their image abroad and stifle criticism. Notable examples include “Tony Blair Associates,” employed to reshape Kazakh President Nazarbayev’s human rights narrative, and “Black, Manafort” which lobbied the US Congress for Zaire’s Mobutu and the Philippines’ Marcos. However, the chronic lack of data has impeded a systematic comprehension of how these firms operate in the democracies they seek to influence.

More information

Research outcomes

Scharpf, A., Gläßel, C., & Dukalskis, A. (2025).

Dictatorships and Western Public Relations Firms: Evidence from the United States. Security Studies, 34(4), 751–788.

Areas of interest

Subversion Repression Authoritarianism Politics Dictators Autocracies Sportswashing

Cohort

FG10

Biography

Christian Gläßel is a postdoctoral researcher at the HErtis School's Centre for International Security. Christian obtained his PhD from the Mannheim Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences in 2020. His PhD on subversion, repression, and regime stability was awarded the Lorenz von Stein Prize. Before joining the Hertie School, Christian was a lecturer at the University of Mannheim and researcher in the ERC project "Repression and the Escalation of Violence" and the Collaborative Research Center "Political Economy of Reforms".

In his research, Christian investigates fundamental questions of authoritarian politics and touches new grounds on the inner workings of dictatorial regimes. Christian’s work on autocratization processes, repressive organizations, information manipulation, and the death toll behind authoritarian soft power and sportswashing strategies has been published in all leading international political science outlets, including in the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, European Journal of International Relations, and Comparative Political Studies, among others.

Biographical details correct as of 12.03.26