DURING the past 23 years, more than half of the world's governments have been overthrown by coups d'etat. Conspirators are increasingly aware that complex societies are vulnerable to attack. Slash a wire, start a rumor, dump LSD into reservoirs: today any determined guerrilla can stop The System. One man with one bullet can change history. A handful can take over a country.
This knowledge has now been systematized in Coup d'Etat, A Practical Handbook, which shows that in practice things are not so easy. Published in the U.S. by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., the...