Covert Regime Change

America's Secret Cold War: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs

By: Lindsey A. O'Rourke

Narrated by: Gary Roelofs

States seldom resort to war to overthrow their adversaries. They are more likely to attempt to covertly change the opposing regime, by assassinating a foreign leader, sponsoring a coup d’état, meddling in a democratic election, or secretly aiding foreign dissident groups.

In Covert Regime Change, Lindsey A. O’Rourke shows us how states really act when trying to overthrow another state. She argues that conventional focus on covert cases misses the basic causes of regime change. O’Rourke provides substantive evidence of types of security interests that drive states to intervene.

Covert Regime Change assembles an original dataset of all American regime change operations during the Cold War. This fund of information shows the United States was 10 times more likely to try covert rather than overt regime change during the Cold War. Her dataset allows O’Rourke to address three foundational questions: What motivates states to attempt foreign regime change? Why do states prefer to conduct these operations covertly rather than overtly? How successful are such missions in achieving their foreign policy goals?

The book is published by Cornell University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2018 Cornell University (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Fantastic...A well-written, important work that should productively inform foreign-policy debates going forward...should be essential reading." (The National Interest)

"A valuable book that sheds light on an important issue." (Survival: Global Politics and Strategy)

"All who read this book will be impressed with its depth, detail, and clarity...No other academic study of the question tops this one." (Richard Betts, Columbia University)

Interesting Topic

If this topic interests you, it’s worth a listen. Non-partisan, worthwhile listen of stories that are not taught in school.

Academic study

Deceptive description of what appears to be a PhD thesis. Not suited for audio book