Foreign-Imposed Regime Change (FIRC) atau intervensi perubahan rezim merupakan salah satu instrumen kebijakan keamanan Amerika Serikat (AS) dalam mengejar kepentingannya. Dalam Perang Sipil Suriah, AS menjadi salah satu negara pengintervensi dan dengan tujuan untuk mengganti pemerintahan Suriah. AS menggunakan intervensi perubahan rezim tertutup di Suriah. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk menjawab pertanyaan “mengapa AS menggunakan intervensi perubahan rezim tertutup alih-alih terbuka di Suriah?” Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah pendekatan kualitatif dengan teknik pengumpulan data studi dokumen. Kerangka analisis yang digunakan adalah Logika Strategi Perubahan Rezim oleh Lindsey O’Rourke (2018) yang terdiri dari pertimbangan taktis dan keuntungan strategis intervensi. Peneliti berargumen bahwa AS menggunakan intervensi perubahan rezim tertutup karena pertimbangan taktis AS di Suriah dan rekam jejak di negara-negara target sebelumnya dan pertimbangan keuntungan strategis akan hasil yang didapat di Suriah serta posisi negara-negara rival membuat AS enggan menggunakan operasi terbuka dan memilih operasi tertutup.

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Foreign-Imposed Regime Change is one of the United States’ (US) security policy instruments to pursue their national security interests. During the Syrian Civil War, the US intervenes with a purpose of overthrowing the incumbent Syrian government. The US uses a covert regime change for that purpose. This research is aiming at answering the question of “why does the US use a covert regime change instead of an overt regime change in Syria?” This research relies on qualitative approach to answer the research question and uses primary and secondary data collected from official documents and open-source information. This research employs the concept of the strategic logic of regime change developed by Lindsey O’Rourke (2018; 2019) to analyze the case. This research focuses on the tactical considerations and strategic benefits of an intervention and argues that US uses covert regime change operation because of the heavy cost of their previous overt regime change polices in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya as well as the fear of rival states’ intervention, especially from Russia, in Syria that might endanger their current geopolical standing.