What are some of the important lessons of the regime change operations?

What Are Some Of The Important Lessons Of The Regime Change Operations?
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In the past and recent times many parts of the world have witnessed political instability and armed conflicts. In most cases, the struggle for power is at the center of the instabilities and armed conflicts. In the process, some leaders resort to dictatorship to suppress those opposing their rule, and as a result thousands, mostly civilians lose their lives. The US being a superpower has been in the forefront to help affected nations return power to the right leaders through regime change operations. Some of the countries where the US has spearheaded regime change operations include Afghanistan, Serbia, and Iraq.
Nonetheless, after many years of such operations, the US seems to be changing its strategy by limiting military involvement as much as possible owing to many lessons learned from past operations. In this regard, one of the key lessons of regime change operations is that any plan to change a regime should begin with understanding the unique position of the country under focus including the local and international environment, the culture of the people and its institutions. For instance, the US was successful in changing the regime in Serbia in 2000 because they understood the political situation, the institutions and the people of the country (Schulte, 2013).
Another key lesson is to identify and weaken the key sources of power such as state-owned media, the military and the police (Schulte, 2013).

This lesson was particularly learned from the case of Serbia and Afghanistan. Also, it is important to obtain the widest possible backing, both local and international and show how regime change will be beneficial to the country.
References
Schulte, G. L. (2013). Regime Change Without Military Force: Lessons from Overthrowing Milosevic. Prism: a Journal of the Center for Complex Operations, 4(2), 45.