The article examines the autumn 2025 protests in Madagascar as an episode of socio-political destabilization combining features of a coupvolution and Generation Z protest mobilization. The Malagasy events represent the first case in Africa where Generation Z protests culminated in regime change, with the military playing a decisive role—aligning this episode with the coupvolutions in the Sahel countries. However, unlike the Sahelian cases, the initiating role belonged not to the military elite but to a horizontally organized digital movement. The study aims to determine the extent to which the Malagasy events reproduce the characteristics of coupvolutions previously observed in the Sahel countries and correspond to the logic of the contemporary Generation Z protest wave, as well as to identify their impact on the transformation of the state's foreign policy orientation. Methodologically, the research employs a processual analysis of crisis dynamics, a comparative analysis with coupvolutions in Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, and with Generation Z protests in African countries, and a discourse analysis of public statements by representatives of the transitional regime and military structures. The 2025 protests are classified as a successful revolution reproducing key features of a coupvolution: mass mobilization and the decisive role of the military in effecting regime change. The initiating role belonged to a horizontally organized Generation Z movement, while the military acted as a secondary actor, guaranteeing the political transformation. The post-crisis foreign policy reorientation toward cooperation with BRICS represents not an external by-product of the crisis but a continuation of the struggle for new legitimacy and the reconfiguration of state identity. Thus, Madagascar's post-revolutionary foreign policy reorientation confirms a broader African trend: socio-political destabilization now leads not to liberalization and rapprochement with the West, but to a search for alternative centers of power and deeper engagement with Global South countries, including Russia. The scientific novelty lies in the juxtaposition of the literature on coupvolutions with studies of Generation Z protest mobilization and the application of this synthetic approach to the Malagasy case. The results may be applied to the analysis of socio-political destabilization in African countries and its foreign policy consequences in the context of a transforming world order.
Chernomorchenko et al. (2026) studied this question.