The coup d'état was once described as “the most visible and recurrent characteristic of the African political experience” (Decalo 1990). In its first decade, the African Union has witnessed a precipitous decline in coup activity. This paper examines the role of the African Union in this...

Scholars of international relations have actively debated the consequences of globalization. Among this literature is growing attention to the status of women. While scholars have largely treated globalization as either simply improving or degrading women's rights, we point to a conditional...

With 44 coup attempts since 2000 and 14 since 2010, coups are on the rise. Signals from domestic and international actors have been shown to influence the likelihood of a coup attempt. However, coups remain difficult to predict, typically leaving domestic actors and policy-makers in a reactive...

Diversionary theory of conflict has largely been focused on democracies, specifically the United States and Great Britain. Attempts to explain the diversionary tendencies of non-democracies have not fully specified the conditions under which leaders — who do not face a legitimate prospect of...

Previous studies have attested to leaders “coup-proofing” their regimes by reducing the ability or disposition of their armies to seek their removal. The following paper tests the utility of these efforts. “Structural” coup-proofing such as counterbalancing is expected to reduce the...