Contrary to a perception — fueled by Chinese propaganda during the 2008 Tibetan uprising that the Tibetan struggle is heading toward extremism, this study shows that the movement has since the 1950s moved toward a tighter embrace of nonviolent resistance. The study traces this evolution, analyzing the central themes, purposes, challenges, strategies, tactics and impacts of three major Tibetan uprisings over the past six decades. Tibetans are now waging a quiet, slow-building nonviolent movement, centered on strengthening the Tibetan national and cultural fabric via what the author refers to as transformative resistance. This is happening in an immensely repressive political environment, which shows that there is a way to mobilize people power against even one of the most ruthless regimes in the world.

The Tibetan Nonviolent Struggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis (Icnc Monograph)

History

Dorjee PhD, Tenzin

World

International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

In irregular civil wars, armed groups strategically aim to conquer, preserve and control territories. Local civilians inhabiting these territories respond in a wide variety of forms. Although the two dominant responses seem to be to collaborate with the strongest actor in town or flee the area, civilians are not stuck with only these choices. Collectively defying armed groups by engaging in organized nonviolent forms of noncooperation, self-organization and disruption is another option. However, given unequal force, it is still unclear why ordinary unarmed civilians choose to defy fully armed opponents, let alone how they manage to coordinate and act collectively, and even achieve results that often go against the strategic interests of the armed groups. This monograph examines this puzzle through a detailed case study of one instance of sustained and organized civil resistance led by ordinary peasants against state and non-state repressive actors in Colombia’s longstanding civil war: the case of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó (PCSJA). Building on interview and archival material collected during fieldwork, a dataset on civilian victimization, and secondary literature, this monograph describes and analyzes the emergence of the PCSJA, focusing on the key choices made to launch its civil resistance campaign; the methods of nonviolent action used; the evolution of peasants’ preference for nonviolent organizing and noncooperation; and the capacity for collective action. An improved knowledge of this form of civil resistance can serve as a solid basis for the diffusion of these strategies both in other areas of Colombia and abroad, as well as for the design of post-conflict reconstruction strategies.

The Power of Staying Put: Nonviolent Resistance Against Armed Groups in Colombia (Icnc Monograph)

Masullo, Juan

Americas

How can we understand — when nonviolent movements will stay nonviolent? When are they likely to break down into violence? In this monograph, Jonathan Pinckney analyzes both what promotes and undermines nonviolent discipline in civil resistance movements. Combining quantitative research on thousands of nonviolent and violent actions with a detailed comparison of three influential cases of civil resistance during the “Color Revolutions”, Pinckney’s study provides important lessons for activists and organizers on the front lines, as well as for practitioners whose work may impact the outcomes of nonviolent struggles. We learn how repression consistently induces violence, as do government concessions. On the flip side, we see that structuring a campaign in an inclusive and non-hierarchical way is conducive to greater nonviolent discipline.

Making or Breaking Nonviolent Discipline in Civil Resistance Movements

Politics & Social Sciences

Pinckney, Jonathan

Social Sciences

This book on the relationship between communications and nonviolent resistance captures a new understanding of the events that led ultimately to the fall of the authoritarian system in communist Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. In particular, it analyzes history-making acts of resistance and the movements that propelled them in Budapest in 1956, Prague in 1968, Gdansk in 1980 and East Berlin in 1989, in their own historical continuum. As we evaluate each crisis in relation to the others, we find that beyond cultural and national differences among the countries of the Soviet sphere, the knowledge of how to develop resistance was built up in a little over three generations — a know-how that tied together means of opposition with means of media and communication. Non-provocative, nonviolent methods of action came to supersede uncontrolled forms of violence, and even the mere temptation of armed struggle. From 1968 to 1989, the empowerment of civil resistance movements in Central Europe was witnessed—a phenomenon that strengthened the re-emergence and rebuilding of “civil society.” In a new Afterword penned for the English translation, Howard Barrell extends this evaluation to encompass the role of social media and digital technology in more recent and potential resistance struggles. This preeminent study offers a rare addition to understanding the transformation of half a continent.

Freedom over the Airwaves: From the Czech Coup to the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Semelin, Professor Jacques

Europe

 International human rights came into existence bottom-up, from the efforts of ordinary people to ally with each other in solidarity and demand their rights through civil resistance campaigns in support of democracy, an end to slavery and child labor, women’s rights, labor rights, and tenant rights, among other rights.  Yet international law recognizes only states as the ultimate source of law.  This monograph develops a novel, people-powered or “demos-centric” approach to international human rights law that acknowledges the role in lawmaking of average human beings, seeing them as both the source of rights and the most effective means of overcoming the central weakness of international law—namely, its inability to ensure that states and governments comply with the human rights obligations they supposedly undertake. Taking account of nonviolent movements and their impact on the formation and implementation of international human rights law recognizes the human agency of the supposed beneficiaries of human rights law: common people.     The monograph develops this approach using the controversial third source of law identified in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, namely, “general principles.”     As a source of law, “general principles” are controversial because of their theological, natural law overtones.  This monograph uses nonviolent civil resistance as a means of objectifying natural law and making it usable for a secular, inclusive and multicultural international legal system. Instead of an absolute term—something that exists eternally, independent of the mind of human beings—we can see natural law as a relative term that reflects a human, creative envisioning of an alternative legal order that is not yet reflected in positive legal codes but is being created intersubjectively through the collective work of human beings engaged in nonviolent civil resistance.      The analytical framework developed in this monograph identifies four general principles that structure the human rights project:  nonexploitation, nondiscrimination, nonrepression and nonviolence. These “general principles” crosscut four dimensions of law (international and domestic law, positive and natural law) and comprise a human rights ethos.  Using a typology derived from these four principles, nonviolent civil resistance movements may be critically examined for how fully they manifest these human rights ethos.      The monograph thus creates an interdisciplinary research agenda for future collaboration between legal scholars and social scientists while also making a contribution to the practice of civil resistance. Scholars of civil resistance studies can be attentive to evidence that the nonviolent movements they study are manifesting a human rights ethos. Legal scholars can evaluate this evidence and incorporate it as they develop and strengthen general principles of human rights law, in order to ensure conceptual consistency across the aforementioned four dimensions of law.  Doing so will enable them to recognize the potential of nonviolent civil resistance movements to aid in the “internalization” of international law into domestic legal systems. Finally, practitioners of civil resistance, although primarily using extra-legal means, can become more strategic in their reliance on human rights instruments and treaties as well as general principles in waging more effective nonviolent struggles with better chances to uphold and broaden human rights norms and successfully redress injustices, including in repressive regimes.

People Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework

Wilson, Elizabeth A.

Civil Resistance Against Coups: A Comparative and Historical Perspective

Zunes, Stephen

What drives governments to crack down on and kill their own civilians? And to what extent has nonviolent resistance historically mitigated the likelihood of mass killings? This special report explores the factors associated with mass killings: when governments intentionally kill 1,000 or more civilian noncombatants. We find that these events are surprisingly common, occurring in just under half of maximalist popular uprisings against states, yet they are strongly associated with certain types of resistance. Nonviolent uprisings that are free of foreign interference and that manage to gain military defections tend to be the safest. These findings shed light on how both dissidents and their foreign allies can work together to reduce the likelihood of violent confrontations.

Nonviolent Resistance and Prevention of Mass Killings During Popular Uprisings (Icnc Special Report)

Chenoweth, Erica

Perkoski, Evan

Politics & Government

The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns is a practical guide for activists and organizers of all levels, who wish to grow their resistance activities into a more strategic, fixed-term campaign. It guides readers through the campaign planning process, breaking it down into several steps and providing tools and exercises for each step. Upon finishing the book, readers will have what they need to guide their peers through the process of planning a campaign. This process, as laid out in the guide, is estimated to take about 12 hours from start to finish.
The guide is divided into two parts. The first lays out and contextualizes campaign planning tools and their objectives. It also explains the logic behind these tools, and how they can be modified to better suit a particular group’s context. The second part provides easily reproducible and shareable lesson plans for using each of those tools, as well as explores how to embed the tools in the wider planning process.

The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns

Education & Teaching

Marovic, Ivan

Schools & Teaching

Events of the last decade demand new approaches to atrocity prevention that are adaptable, innovative and independent of a state-centered doctrine. With the aim of reducing risk factors such as civil war, Ackerman and Merriman argue for a new normative framework called The Right to Assist (RtoA), which would strengthen international coordination and support for nonviolent civil resistance campaigns demanding rights, freedom and justice against non-democratic rule.
RtoA would:
1. engage a wide range of stakeholders such as NGOs, states, multilateral institutions and others;
2. bolster various factors of resilience against state fragility; and
3. incentivize opposition groups to sustain commitment to nonviolent strategies of change.
The adoption of this doctrine can reduce the probability of violent conflict that significantly heightens atrocity risk, while increasing the prospects for constructive human development.

Preventing Mass Atrocities: From a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance

Ackerman, Peter

Merriman, Hardy

Constitutional Law

El camino de la mayor resistencia: Una guía para la planificación de campañas noviolentas (Spanish Edition)

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by International Center on Nonviolent Conflict