Presidents turning into monarchs. Tech tycoons and autocrats intent on global regime change. Armies of cyber trolls. The old order is at an end. The Hour of the Predator has come.

Former political adviserGiuliano da Empoli takes us on an insider’s journey through this new reality, from the Glass Palace of the UN to the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, from top secret meetings to violent power struggles. We encounter dictators and tryants, strongmen and AI billionaires – geopolitical predators, and the flailing leaders whop desperately try to appease them.

In the age of the Borgias or the conquistadors, cynical scheming and brute force increasingly determine the course of international affairs. This is an ugent guide to our new world, and our uncertain future.

Author of the hugely successful novel The Wizard of the Kremlin, Giuliano da Empoli’s impassioned volume about the state of the world, The Hour of the Predator.  He sees today’s leaders as Aztecs at the arrival of those who followed Columbus across the Atlantic – praying to useless gods for miracles while handing the keys to the Kingdom to new conquerors because of infighting, petty rivalries and the inability to grasp the severity of the situation. The new colonisers are not Spanish conquistadors, but billionaires, tech bros and autocrats, almost all of whom are men, pumped up on testosterone and with high regard for their own brilliance.

Da Empoli was invited to Chicago with other luminaries soon after Trump’s first election and the 2016 Brexit vote,  to the launch of the foundation set up by the Obamas to inspire and connect “leaders in waiting”. He arrived keen to hear about how to prepare for the challenges ahead instead, guests were treated to lessons about Michelle Obama’s organic garden, to a speech by someone who pioneered the mindful consumption of chocolate in the workplace , and a dinner curated by a conversation facilitator.  He writes he had “met lots of nice, well-intentioned people who were singularly ill equipped to fight the coming battle”.

Today’s world is made by men like Trump, Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia or Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, who locked up 80,000 people  and made his country safest in the western world as a result.

Da Empoli,  explains with precision that making poor decisions has consequences that can affect millions- even billions of people. 

The Hour of the Predator: Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World by Gluliano da Empoli, translated by Sam Taylor, Pushkin £12.99, 160 pages.