U.S. Has a “Checkered History” of Toppling Authoritarian Regimes

In a Newsday article about Long Island Iranian-Americans’ reactions to recent developments involving Iran’s leadership, Dr. Paul Fritz, associate professor and chair of Hofstra’s Department of Political Science, discussed the history of the United States toppling authoritarian regimes, which, he said, rarely leads to new democracies or stable leadership without extensive American support.

“The Trump administration is banking on the people rising up and demanding some change to the regime,” Dr. Fritz said. “Foreign imposed regime change doesn’t work very often.”