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Free PDF By Mike Shelby · Forward Observer

Color Revolutions 101

What they are, how they work, and how they’re won or lost.

Cover of Color Revolutions 101: How they work, how they win, and what to watch, by Mike Shelby
PDF · Includes a one-page checklist

A free guide from Forward Observer’s Mike Shelby on how color revolutions develop, the strategies behind them, and the warning signs worth watching.

What’s inside

A clear primer on a kind of conflict most people misread.

  1. Understand the strategy

    How government legitimacy, authority, and capacity factor into color revolutions.

  2. Recognize the escalation

    The progression from protests to mass political defiance and revolution.

  3. Know what to watch

    A practical one-page checklist of conditions, developments, and warning signs to monitor.

Also covered: how a color revolution differs from an insurgency, the six pillars of support, and the #1 factor that determines who wins and loses.

About the author

Mike Shelby

Founder & CEO, Forward Observer

Mike Shelby is a former intelligence sergeant and contractor with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2016, he’s researched low intensity conflict, like violent social movements, domestic terrorism, popular revolution and insurgency, and their implications for U.S. national security.

Forward Observer’s Watchfloor provides ongoing coverage and briefings on national and global intelligence. This guide is a free introduction to one of the subjects we follow.

Get the guide. It’s free.

Color Revolutions 101, includingIncluding the one-page checklist of what to watch.