The False Promise of Covert Regime Change

This chapter discusses covert regime change and how little attention it has received in international affairs. Despite the fact that covert regime changes have long played a central role in international politics, comprehensive theories to explain how, when, and why states launch these operations are lacking, possibly because of the special challenges involved in studying covert actions. Nonetheless, American actions during the Cold War offer a unique opportunity to study the covert actions of a great power. Indeed, the United States and other great powers will likely continue to undertake both covert and overt missions regularly. To understand modern world affairs, it is therefore necessary to determine how and why states launch these operations. Toward that end, the chapter briefly lays out the causes, conduct, and consequences of foreign-imposed covert regime change.