November 19: "Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War"

✨ Join us for the next lecture of the American Studies Colloquium Series in the Fall semester 2026/2027!
We are pleased to host Lindsey O'Rourke from Boston College with a lecture titled "Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War".

📅 Thursday, November 19, 2026
⏰ 4:45 p.m.
📍 Room: 2.118
🔹 3 OZN
Funded by a U.S. Embassy grant.
Why do states attempt to overthrow foreign governments, and how often do these efforts achieve their goals? Drawing on her book, "Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War," Lindsey O’Rourke examines the motivations, methods, and consequences of U.S. efforts to change foreign governments during the Cold War. The talk explores why policymakers so often turned to covert action and why installing a friendly government proved far easier than securing its lasting cooperation.
Lindsey O’Rourke is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Her research focuses on international security, U.S. foreign policy, and regime change. She is the author of Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2018).

See you there ✨