The Coup Atlas: Mapping Regimes and Risks in 2025


In an age where constitutional order is no longer a given, understanding the geography of power grabs has become essential. From televised insurrections to quiet junta consolidations, coups and regime changes are reshaping the world at a pace that’s hard to ignore. As of 2025, we’re not only tracking authoritarian consolidation—we’re watching democracy itself fray at the edges.

Welcome to The Coup Atlas—an attempt to visually and analytically frame the nations governed by force, manipulation, or elite capture. This isn’t just cartography. It’s civic diagnosis.

Where Coups Still Rule

At the centre of the atlas sit the entrenched military regimes:

  • Myanmar: A textbook junta where Senior General Min Aung Hlaing presides over widespread civil war and displacement.

  • Sudan: Fragmented between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, with no unified state structure.

  • Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali: The Sahel’s trio of post-2020 coups, now fusing anti-colonial rhetoric with military rule.

  • Guinea, Chad, and Gabon: Transitional governments run by men in fatigues making vague promises of reform.

These states aren’t just unstable—they’re reversing decades of hard-won electoral norms.

Soft Coups and Autocratic Drift

Beyond the uniforms are the politicians-turned-autocrats:

  • Russia: Vladimir Putin continues his electoral manipulation and constitutional reengineering, extending his grip since 2000.

  • Cameroon: Paul Biya's 40+ year reign exemplifies slow-motion autocracy under democratic disguise.

  • Tunisia: Kais Saied executed a “soft coup” in 2021, dissolving parliament and ruling by decree.

  • Turkey, Iran, Venezuela, and Egypt: Each blends public theatre with deep elite control—regimes that walk like democracies but legislate like juntas.

These hybrid models confuse global observers and often evade timely sanctions. Alarm bells only start ringing with an upending of term limits or other checks and balances on the slippery slope to President for Life and one party rule.

Why This Atlas Matters

Understanding coup regimes isn’t academic. It informs how aid is distributed, which elections are worth monitoring, and where civil society can meaningfully engage.

  • For SDG 16 (Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions), it’s the canary in the coal mine.

  • For foreign policy strategists, it’s a navigational tool to avoid legitimising fake elections.

  • For journalists and advocates, it frames risk—highlighting where transparency can’t be assumed.

In many cases, coup regimes coincide with severe press restrictions, human rights violations, and economic collapse. The longer the rule, the more normalized the dysfunction becomes.

The Map That Speaks

Visualising these regimes could take the form of:

  • Heat maps of coup longevity

  • Timelines of democratic regression

  • Overlays showing SDG progress correlations

  • Civil unrest trackers tied to regime type

Done right, The Coup Atlas becomes not only a tool of information—but of inspiration. A call to reform, resist, and rethink how we measure political legitimacy in the 21st century.

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