Anatomy of a Regime Change: Top Stories of the "Color Revolutions" 2000-2009

The Decade that Changed the World

Just like that, we've completed a full decade of "color revolutions," covering the years 2000 through 2009. In that time, we've explored countries with vastly different geopolitical situations, examined a wide range of youth movements, and traced the influence of NGOs across each of these cases.

The research behind each of these stories has come from an equally wide variety of sources. Documentaries, books, and memoirs. Domestic publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today, alongside international outlets such as The Ukrainian Weekly, Der Spiegel, and Kommersant. LiveJournal entries, personal blog posts, WikiLeaks cables, State Department cables, and reports from USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Open Society Foundations (OSF), Freedom House, and IREX - just to name a few.

Of course, depending on the country and the year, some sources proved far more valuable than others. In Myanmar, the government-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar offered fascinating insight into how authorities viewed U.S. and British influence in the country. In Belarus, the March Diaries provided first-hand accounts from people on the ground. And in Kyrgyzstan, the youth group Birge's website - combined with a Wall Street Journal article - helped unlock the full story.

So today, we're taking a step back to highlight some of the sources and stories that most shaped my understanding of this decade. Below is a YouTube video covering many of these fascinating discoveries.

And stay tuned - next week we begin Moldova in 2009... and it's a long one.