Customer Reviews

Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook

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With Coup d'Etats continuously occurring all over the world, this book is more relevant than ever in dealing with the subject. For example, using the framework developed in this book, it is easy to understand why the many recent coup attempts in Venezuela have failed (both by Chavez and the more recent one against him). Every time there is a coup I find myself referring back to the book in order to determine if there were any telltale signs to predict whether the coup will be successful or not.

His basic framework involves timing, media control and popular support, and government organizational structure. With these factors in mind, the author examines a large number of coups, both successful and failed. The inner stories of many of these coups is fascinating by itself, yet the author does a good job of telling the tale while drawing the main lessons from it.

WARNING: This book is not in the class of typical, vague strategy compendiums that business gurus and self-help seekers can read in hope of finding some inner meaning to help them find their "way." Coup d'Etat is merely a book on overthrowing government structures with the intention of deterring unpopular regimes from the quest for dominion. Accurate in strategic principles, this book could be very dangerous or totally useless in the wrong hands. If you are one of the rare ones out there who actually reads strategy books with the intention of war, then this work is definitely required reading. Study it as a guidebook, and go overthrow a facist regime in a third world country (for fun and profit), or die a horribly violent death while trying. It's up to you, but my guess is that most people who read this will end up infamous, dead, or writing stupid reviews for it saying how well it can be used as a metaphor for human life.

Edward Luttwak's first and finest work, Coup d'Etat is the product of the close study of how dozens of governments around the world were successfully overthrown.

By examining the successful and failed strategies and tactics of those who staged the coups, Luttwak synthesizes a step-by-step guide to oust a regime and install a replacement. The political technology he develops, like military hardware, is value-neutral - like a firearm, anyone can employ it for ends good or evil.

As long as there are tyrannical regimes, there will always be a need for good people to be able to stage or sponsor successful coups d'etat. This volume is a practical handbook of immense value to the planning, execution, and long-term success of a regime change. Likewise, it provides a real-world aid to devise defensive means of protecting a government against a coup d'etat.

Advances in information technology since the book was written enter new variables into the formula, but Luttwak's basic concept remains fundamentally sound. As long as there will be coups d'etat, there will be a need for students and policymakers to study and master this book.

Luttwak himself provides the best justification for this book, which is that coups remain the single most common form of power change throughout the world but are rarely studied as a phenomenon.

With remarkable detail and historical examples, Luttwak examines the patterns that exist in all coups, including which ones make a successful or failed takeover, including timing of assault, control of media organs, and the role of the populace.

Coup D'Etat is an older book, but remains as relevant as ever. A great guide when forcasting the results of coups that make headlines to this day.

Perhaps my impression is wrong but it seems to me that there have not been as many coup d'etats in the past decade as there were in the fifties and sixties. Nonetheless the subject remains one of perennial interest. Luttwalk here provides a kind of step-by- step guidebook for any would be coup-ist. He teaches that , "the coup d'etat uses precisely those parts of the state apparatus which are the prime target of revolutionary war: the armed forces, the police and the security agencies. The technique of the coup s the technique of judo : the planners of the coup infiltrate and subvert a small critical part of the security apparatus, which they then use with surgical precisionto displace the political leadership from its control of the rest of the state bureaucracy"
Luttwalk in this book describes and details the intelligence techniques required before the coup, the military techniques required during it and the propaganda techniques required to provide it with legitimacy afterwards..
He says it has no ideology behind it.
This is a compact richly informative work which makes use a variety of examples to establish its principal points.

Many countries don't change administrations with elections, though, happily, their numbers are decreasing. How do other countries change rulers? This provocative, slightly dangerous book discusses the question from a practical point of view. As you might expect, it has also had a history of being found in the suites of those who seek power in these countries, so the advice doesn't always work.

I bought this for an essay hoping it might be useful and fearing it would be some loony how to guide. What I found was a lucid, thematic work with plenty of extras and historical support. Aside from being a bit dated I love it.

An excellent, if somewhat dated book. And here in the South Pacific - complete with its coups and mutinies now - Luttwak seems downright wrong in a number of respects. Perhaps our region is different from 60s Africa. Still, an immensely readable and frighteningly enjoyable book

Dear Pedro,

Next time you wish to overthrow the leftist thug who currently occupies the Venezualen presidential palace, please read this book -- ya might learn something! Your recent aborted coup was a lesson in how not to overthrow a government. First off, you failed to learn the true loyalties of many significant players. This book reminds you of a key coup-throwing tip -- if you don't know their loyalties, round 'em up.

Project strength, control the media, neutralize doubtful elements of the armed forces, build coalitions where possible, and never let the deposed autocrat rally support for a counter-coup. These are but a few lessons you will find in this slim, yet elegant, volume. Read it, know it, be it (you'll have plenty of time while serving what promises to be a lengthy prison sentence)! And next time, for the sake of your people, make sure Hugo Chavez sleeps with the fishes.

I ran into this book at the age of 12. When I realized how much fun this book could be (a few years later) it had disappeared from the local library. Looking for years at many university libraries, later I found out that even when it was listed it turned out to be stolen!
Bought it on-line, read it and enjoyed it. Nice for an intercontinental flight and beyond.