ECOWAS needs to be decisive in enforcing its protocols and sanctioning members that flout the provisions of its protocols and policies.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden review the troops from the east steps of the U.S. Capitol during the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington.
(David Tulis/Pool Photo via AP)
From a global perspective, there was nothing unique about the recent raid on the U.S. Capitol. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have backed military coups around the world for decades.
Lawmakers hide in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol as Trump supporters raid the building on Jan. 6, 2020.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Rather than denigrating other nations as banana republics for their penchant for insurrections and lawless coups, the United States needs to take a long look inward following the raid on the Capitol.
Insurrection at the US Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
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.
Riot police face off against protesters in Lima, Peru, Nov. 12, 2020.
Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images
After becoming Peru's third president in six days, Francisco Sagasti must both lead the country into elections and build a better democracy. It's a test Peruvian leaders largely failed 20 years ago.
The second phase of Ghana’s post-colonial history – from 1981 – is intensely controversial, centering on Jerry Rawlings himself.
Jerry John Rawlings Facebook
Jerry John Rawlings remains the most polarizing political figure in Ghana since Kwame Nkrumah
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
South Africa’s numerous interventions in Lesotho contribute to the acrimonious nature of its political culture.
Guinean immigrants living and working in Portugal participate in a demonstration against the political crisis in Guinea-Bissau back in 2012.
EPA/Tiago Petinga
The political crisis and any potential instability may once again force the military’s hand
Trump takes the stage at a Make America Great Again rally in April 2019 in Green Bay, Wis. Trump and his defenders claim the ongoing impeachment process is a coup. But is it Trump who’s truly engaging in a coup?
AP Photo/Mike Roemer
Since the election of Donald Trump, the United States has been experiencing a slow-moving coup that is still in the process of toppling American democratic institutions.
Senegalese women cast their ballots in the presidential elections in February.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
When the establishment retains some leverage over reformers change can be slow, superficial, and short-lived. Sudan appears to be a textbook case of this scenario.
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.
Unyielding protesters put an end to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s 26-year old authoritarian rule.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
The role of the military in toppling authoritarian rulers, after intensive popular protests, raises questions about how the AU's policy against coups should be applied.
Omar al-Bashir seems to have reached the end of his long political road.
EPA-EFE
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.
A rally celebrating the second anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, March 18, 2016.
AP/Ivan Sekretarev
Richard Carney, China Europe International Business School
Almost one-third of countries around the world are authoritarian regimes with the trappings of democracy. Their bad behavior poses a threat to real democracies, as the United States recently learned.
Mauro still has enough money to buy the loyalty of Venezuela’s military — but his government is going bankrupt, so that will change.
Reuters/Handout
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.
Adjunct Researcher at the Center for Mining and Sustainability Studies at the Universidad del Pacífico (Peru) and PhD Candidate in Geography, The University of Melbourne