Edward N. Luttwak

Coup d'Etat : A Practical Handbook

What are the prerequisite conditions for a coup d’état ? How to class the forces of law and order according to their possibility for intervention ? How to infiltrate the security system which every state uses to protect itself ? How to choose which targets to occupy, which to neutralise, and which people to isolate ? How to form, organise, and utilise the resources necessary for the fulfilment of a coup d’état ? It is to these questions that this book, which broke a real taboo on its first publication in 1967, aims to provide concrete answers.