Color Revolution
The term Color Revolution refers to what has now become the standard technique for promoting regime change in targeted nations. These are revolutionary movements or insurrection attempts to overthrow an existing geo-political power or dictator that often adopt a specific color as their symbol, such as in Ukraine's Orange Revolution (2004) and Kuwait's Blue Revolution (2005). Color Revolutions are expensive ($5 billion in the case of Ukraine) and are typically orchestrated by a public-private partnership comprised of government agencies such as the State Department and MI6 and/or CIA, combined with private funding and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
If the targeted populations can’t be organized effectively to overthrow their leaders, there is always the fall back option of arming mercenary groups to seize power by violence, or if that fails, out and out military aggression by the US or NATO. The most reliable method seems to be a combination of non-violent and violent action, such as in the case of Ukraine’s second Color Revolution in 2014 (a coup which was comically dubbed the “Revolution of Dignity” by its sponsors, who know that a successful marketing campaign must never be understated.) A similar case was the 2019 protests in Hong Kong, where gang violence was deployed in hopes of provoking a crackdown by the state which could then be exploited for propaganda purposes. But it was inevitable that these techniques would eventually be used on the US itself. [1]
Research Paper Excerpt
Derived from cases of Color Revolution it is found that the order for color revolution to occur or be able succeed, there are four criteria which must be satisfied. Firstly, their incumbent leader of the regimes must be very unpopular and face the so-called ‘lame-duck syndrome’. Secondly, the anti-regimes forces are enforced by mass-media and foreign influences. Thirdly, the revolution must not be ideological; it must be for the sake of better national integration, freedom, democracy and economic development. Most importantly, the demand for such improvement should be massive among the population. Lastly, the anti-regime forces should also be motivated by the grievances on the corrupted government which is supported by a foreign state which the people do not desire. The anti-regime forces that happened in post-Soviet countries can only be transformed into a successful color revolution if these criteria are fulfilled.[2]
7 Pillars of Color Revolution
The former ambassador to Russia under the Obama Administration, Michael McFaul, came up with "7 Pillars of Color Revolution," a list of seven steps needed to incite the type of revolution used to upend Eastern European countries like Ukraine and Georgia in the past two decades. Here are McFaul's seven steps:
1. Semi-autocratic regime (not fully autocratic) – provides opportunity to call incumbent leader "fascist"
2. Appearance of unpopular president or incumbent leader
3. United and organized opposition – Antifa, BLM
4. Effective system to convince the public (well before the election) of voter fraud
5. Compliant media to push voter fraud narrative
6. Political opposition organization able to mobilize "thousands to millions in the streets"