Covert Regime Change after the Cold War

Abstract

This chapter briefly discusses the state of America's attempts at covert regime changes during the Cold War, before turning to the state of covert operations in the post-Cold War era. It shows that the vast majority of America's covert and overt regime changes during the Cold War did not work out as their planners intended. Washington launched these regime changes to resolve security-oriented interstate disputes by installing foreign leaders with similar policy preferences. American experiences during the Cold War, however, illustrate that this was often quite difficult in practice. And yet, as the chapter reveals, the end of the Cold War did not mean the end of America's aggressive pursuit of regime change. In the twenty-seven years since the fall of the Soviet Union, Washington has continued to habitually intervene both covertly and overtly throughout the world. Although U.S. policymakers' appetite for regime change has not diminished, America's post-Cold War interventions have taken on new forms.