High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "Regime change" is the replacement of one regime with another. While it is widely believed that the term was first coined by former US President Bill Clinton, use of the term dates to at least 1925. Regime change can occur through conquest by a foreign power, revolution, coup d'état or reconstruction following the failure of a state. Regime change may replace all or part of the state's existing institutions, administrative apparatus, bureaucracy and other elements.