Existing research on autocracies and their coalitions, mainly looks at how regionalism and regional institutions boost autocratic rule. For instance, comparative politics literature assesses the efforts of autocratic powers in sustaining autocracy in regional organizations. Similarly, regionalism scholars investigate how regional organizations improve autocratic learning and survival politics. However, the global and international consequences of autocracy and autocratic coalitions remain a blind spot in academia.
Our research agenda, therefore, looks at the international behaviour of authoritarian regimes. Little systematic analysis exists on the study of authoritarian international collaboration and the challenges that come with it. For instance, most of this research focuses on foreign policy of singular states, such as China. Therefore, this research agenda flips the directionality of existing research (i.e., what are the consequences of cooperation for autocratic resilience) in this field around and asks:
What are the global consequences of autocracy and autocratic coalitions?
The research agenda on global consequences of regime type and cooperation is normally focused on the usual suspects: liberal actors embedded in democratic regional organizations, trying to influence global regimes. However, we argue that autocracy has an effect on global norms, laws, and institutions.