The Dictator's Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy by William Dobson presents an in-depth analysis of the ongoing struggle in the modern world of dictatorship. For this research, Dobson traveled to many countries with dictatorial governments, intending to show the rest of the world how the modern dictatorship maintains its power and deals with all opponents who threaten its regime. Early in the book, Dobson states that it is difficult for dictators to keep their crimes from the world. Dobson also talks about how the media influenced the dictatorship for the first time. In 1974, the Portuguese army played a song signaling a military coup, which forced the nation to exile its dictator the next day (3). In essence, Dobson argues that over the years the Internet and social media have seriously damaged the power of the dictatorial regime. However, Dobson also argues that dictators have learned their mistakes over the years and have somehow managed to increase their power over the people, hence the significance of the dictator's learning curve. In his book, Dobson cites several examples of the effect of social media and mass media. on dictatorship. For example, Dobson tells in depth how a large group of people around the world quickly gathered to protest the dictatorship. This incident arose from “an anonymous call for a Chinese jasmine revolution…on social media and China's equivalent of Twitter” (Dobson 50). Dobson later mentions that senior Chinese leaders had a meeting on how they should control Chinese mass media and social media about events that occurred in the Middle East, so that such incidents would not occur in the future (50). This effect of social media and… medium of paper… dictators have been exiled or even executed following the widespread use of these technologies. Dobson also writes that the biggest problem dictators and authoritarians face is their own people (9). These factors push dictators to learn from their own mistakes and those of other dictators, causing the nature of dictatorship to change over the years. In particular, Russia and China continue to be strong as dictatorial regimes, even if they do not appear to be. Furthermore, the involvement of non-state actors such as CANVAS also influenced the power of the dictatorial regime. As these non-state organizations have become stronger and more powerful over time, the power of the dictatorial regime has become more vulnerable to attack. Indeed, these non-state actors can easily overthrow some less powerful dictator and may forget their democratic identity.