Coup d'état v. Revolution

While one often follows in the other’s footsteps, there is a world of difference between the coup d’état and the revolution. Coup d’état is one of those French words that was too good to not leech into English – it means a “stroke against the state,” or more literally means “blow to the state.” And for the outgoing chief executive it really does blow. Unlike revolutions – which are broad-based, involve howling mobs and are generally very bloody and on a national scale – the coup d’état comes from within the existing power structure. They are as often as not bloodless, or at any rate spill just enough blood for the odd assassination. Among the wonks who study this sort of thing there is an actual marker for determining whether or not a coup is successful: It stays in power for an entire week. Which seems to be a pretty low bar.

The coup is also fairly cheap and, baffling to most Americans, triggering one in a foreign country isn’t all that involved if the soil is right. Tricky, yes and the chances of whole operation going tits up are astronomical, to be sure. Provided you are operating in a country where this sort of thing has happened before, however, it really isn’t all that complicated if you know what you are doing.