Toppling foreign governments : the logic of regime change / Melissa Willard-Foster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Willard-Foster, Melissa, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Regime change--Case studies.

Regime change.

Regime change--Government policy--United States--Case studies.

Regime change--Government policy--Soviet Union--Case studies.

Intervention (International law)--Government policy--United States--Case studies.

Intervention (International law).

Intervention (International law)--Government policy--Soviet Union--Case studies.

International relations--Research--Mathematical models.

International relations.

International relations--Research.

Mathematical models.

Government policy.

Soviet Union.

United States.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

332 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019]

Summary:

Melissa Willard-Foster explores the question of why stronger nations overthrow governments when they could attain their aims at the bargaining table. She identifies a central cause--the targeted leader's domestic political vulnerabilty--that not only gives the leader motive to resist a strong nation's demands, making a bargain more difficult to attain, but also gives the stronger naiton reason to believe that regime change will be comparatively cheap. As long as the targeted leader's domestic opposition is willing to collaborate with the foreign power, the latter is likely to conclude that ousting the leader is more cost effective than negotiation. Willard-Foster analyzes 133 instances of regime change, ranging from covert operations to major military invasion, spanning over two hundred years. She also conducts three in-depth case studies that support her contention that domestically and militarily weak leaders appear more costly to coerce than overthrow and that, as long as they remain ubiquitous, foreign-imposed regime change is likely to endure. -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Why the strong impose regime change on the weak

How states impose regime change

Testing the logic of foreign-imposed regime change

The Cold War : American policy toward Bolivia and Guatemala, 1952-54

The Cold War : Soviet policy toward Poland and Hungary, 1956

The post-9/11 era : regime change and rogues, Iraq 2003, Libya 2003, and Libya 2011.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780812251043

0812251040

OCLC:

1038022816

Publisher Number:

40028846944