There are the classic autocracies that we know well - like China and Russia - but what would it take to morph a democracy like the United States into an authoritarian country?

It’s a question that’s not so far-fetched for the States, a month out from its presidential election, and it’s one that Pulitzter prize winning journalist David E. Sanger has been grappling with.

So with a second Donald Trump presidency looming large, what are the chances that Trump could turn the United States into an autocracy, or something close to it?

Today, Sanger, the national security correspondent for The New York Times, on what he has learned about autocrats in his more than 40 years of reporting.

Further reading:

• David E. Sanger's 'New Cold Wars'.

Audio credit:

• President Clinton's China visit, AAP
• Donald Trump: 'We need a military operation' to stop border cartels, News Nation

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It’s been a year since Hamas attacked Israel, in a vicious and sometimes sadistic assault. The murder of innocent civilians sparked a severe and sustained counter strike by Israel on the Gaza Strip, which is struggling with mass deaths and famine.

We don’t know how, or when, this war, which recently spread to Lebanon, will end. Israel is now locked in a battle against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon's south, while Iran itself has twice launched missile attacks on Israel.

But what has this conflict done to the long-term prospect of peace in the Middle East? Is it as catastrophic a set-back as the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin?

Foreign affairs and national security correspondent, Matthew Knott, travelled to Israel and the West Bank, in October last year. And he’s just returned to the region.

Today, he joins me to discuss how this war has impacted some of the most bitterly divided groups in the world.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wanted to talk about the budget surplus and the crack-down on the big supermarkets over their alleged ill-treatment of customers this week, but that was derailed by the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

While the government struggled to find the right form of words to respond to the crisis between Israel and its neighbours, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton labelled the Prime Minister weak, and said he needed to stand more firmly with Israel.

The result was an ugly week where both men vied to position themselves to voters as the best leader to handle a crisis, showing off their very different styles.

Deputy federal politics editor Nick Bonyhady and federal political correspondent Paul Sakkal join Jacqueline Maley to discuss.

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