Clayton Besaw, University of Central Florida and Matthew Frank, University of Denver
Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, disrupting Congress’s certification of Joe Biden as president-elect. Coup experts explain this violent insurrection wasn’t technically a coup.
The scene in Mali’s capital on Aug. 18, 2020, after Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his prime minister were overthrown by the military.
John Kalapo/Getty Images
When the military intervened against Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 2017, it wasn’t widely called a military coup. New research shows that’s exactly what it was.
Guinean immigrants living and working in Portugal participate in a demonstration against the political crisis in Guinea-Bissau back in 2012.
EPA/Tiago Petinga
In death, President Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi has left behind an unfinished revolution which now needs a new leader.
In this Sunday, June 9, 2019 frame grab from Sudan TV, Lt. Gen. Jamaleddine Omar, from the ruling military council, speaks on a broadcast.
SUDAN TV via AP
History shows that when government elites believe that there is a risk that they may lose control of the capital, they escalate targeted violence against civilians.
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who have tracked over 100 children stolen by Argentina’s 1976-1983 military junta, were among the human rights activists that pushed the US to declassify intelligence documents related to the dictatorship.
Reuters/Marcos Brindicci
Traveling death squads. Sadistic torture techniques. Stolen babies. The US helped it all happen by aiding Argentina’s military regime in the 1970s, according to newly declassified documents.
Sudanese protesters outside of the military headquarters in Khartoum.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
Martin Plaut, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Al-Bashir’s ability to play a skillful combination of internal and external balancing acts, plus ruthless repression and a divided opposition, kept him in power for three decades.
President Muhammadu Buhari attends a campaign rally ahead of the 16 February elections.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
A coup seems so imminent in Venezuela that people are debating whether Maduro’s overthrow would be good or bad for Venezuelan democracy. But history suggests a coup may be less likely than it seems.
Turkish people in Ankara attempting to stop a military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 16, 2016.
AP Photo
2018 is on track to become only the second coup-free year in a century. Coup risk is way down worldwide, thanks to growing political stability in Latin America. Africa has the highest risk of coup.
Stacks of used clothing are seen in this African warehouse. The U.S. is retaliating against countries that are restricting the import of American used clothing, a marginal industry for the U.S. but a critical one for some African nations.
(Shutterstock)
The top U.S. foreign policy goals in Africa evidently no longer relate to human rights or democratic freedoms, but to protecting tiny, marginal American industries.
Multiple court sanctions against the powerful Pakistani politician Nawaz Sharif have spurred protests both for and against the ousted prime minister.
Faisal Mahmood/Reuters
It’s election season in Pakistan, and the Supreme Court is at war with the ruling party. Many Pakistanis wonder whether the nation’s top judge is cleaning up government or staging a judicial coup.
Zimbabwe’s Defence Force has taken control of the country’s political affairs.
Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters
By intervening in Zimbabwe’s politics the military could plunge the country into a prolonged period of uncertainty. Could President Emmerson Mnangagwa be its saviour?
The Army has promised a bloodless rebellion against President Robert Mugabe, but there’s good reason to doubt their claims.
AP Photo
Some observers think Mugabe’s overthrow by the Army might be a good thing for Zimbabwe. An Argentinean expert on Latin America’s bloody military dictatorships disagrees.
Mugabe and his powerful wife have been overthrown in an apparent coup orchestrated by Zimbabwe’s vice president. Will the country transition into democracy or get strapped with yet another dictator?
President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace have become increasingly divisive figures in Zimbabwe.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
The protracted political crisis in Zimbabwe has worsened since President Mugabe fired vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa. Now the military has entered the fray, raising fears a coup is imminent.
Guinea coup leader Moussa Dadis Camara speaks to the media in 2009.
EPA/STR