Ah, thank you! Its a good piece, as Graham notes, authoritarian regimes spend a lot of time presenting themselves as militarily powerful, but perform poorly - I think the presentation has to do with the problem of legitimacy in regimes which are neither democratic nor traditional.

Strong men must appear strong, even when they are weak, because their rule is predicated on the *perception* that they are strong. Domestic authoritarian movements play the same game - they have to get people to believe they are strong, even when their leaders are weak men.