"Tyrants face critical weaknesses that can form a fatal trap. Whether it's their inner circle turning against them or resentment of elites in the military, the masses alienated by cronyism or revolutionaries plotting in exile, tyrants always have more enemies than friends. In How Tyrants Fall, we meet the likes of a revolutionary (codenamed Satan) who risked Stasi capture to undermine an oppressive regime, an American-Gambian activist who plotted to liberate his homeland during breaks from his construction job, and the unapologetic former leader of a Burundian rebel group which carried out a massacre. Drawing on a gripping field research and interviews, political scientist Marcel Dirsus examines the workings and malfunctions of tyrants. But understanding dictators isn't enough. How Tyrant Fall is the gripping, deeply researched blueprint for how to bring them down."--Page 4 of cover. -- Tyrants project invincibility, but all of them fall. This is because they face critical weaknesses that can form a fatal trap. Whether it's their inner circle turning against them or resentment of elites in the military, the masses alienated by cronyism or revolutionaries plotting in exile, tyrants always have more enemies than friends. And when they fall tyrants don't quietly retire - they face exile, prison or death. What happens in the aftermath can change the fate of a nation.Meeting with coup leaders, dissidents and soldiers, political scientist Marcel Dirsus draws on extraordinary interviews to examine the workings and malfunctions of tyrants. We hear from a revolutionary (codename 'Satan') who risked Stasi capture to undermine an oppressive regime, an unapologetic former leader of a Burundian rebel group which carried out a massacre, and an American-Gambian activist who plotted to liberate his homeland on breaks during his construction job.But understanding dictators isn't enough. How Tyrants Fall is the gripping, deeply researched blueprint for how to bring them down.