Book excerpt: Survival, the IISS’s bimonthly journal, challenges conventional wisdom and brings fresh, often controversial, perspectives on strategic issues of the moment. In this issue: Anatol Lieven argues that strong and legitimate states remain central to any efforts to limit climate change and mitigate diseases such as coronavirus, and to maintain Western democracy Oriana Skylar Mastro warns that hereditary autocratic regimes such as North Korea’s are prone to sudden collapse, something for which policymakers should be prepared Shelby Butt and Daniel Byman contend that Russia’s attempts to undermine the West include supporting white-supremacist and other far-right groups And eight more thought-provoking pieces, as well as our regular book reviews and noteworthy column