Books published by International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

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.

La voie de la plus grande r├⌐sistance: un guide ├⌐tape par ├⌐tape pour la planification des campagnes non violentes est destin├⌐ aux activistes et organisateurs de tous niveaux, qui souhaitent faire ├⌐voluer leurs activit├⌐s de r├⌐sistance non violente vers des campagnes plus strat├⌐giques ├á dur├⌐e d├⌐termin├⌐e. Il guide ses lecteurs ├á travers le processus de planification d''une campagne. Il en explique les diff├⌐rentes ├⌐tapes et propose pour chacune d''elles des outils et des exercices. Au terme du Guide, les lecteurs auront acquis ce dont ils ont besoin pour conduire leurs pairs ├á travers le processus de planification d''une campagne. Tel qu''il est expliqu├⌐ dans le guide, ce processus devrait prendre environ 12 heures du d├⌐but ├á la fin. Ce guide comprend deux parties. La premi├¿re pr├⌐sente et contextualise les outils de planification d''une campagne et leurs objectifs. Elle explique ├⌐galement la logique qui sous-tend ces outils et la mani├¿re dont on peut les modifier pour les adapter au contexte d''un groupe particulier. La seconde partie fournit des fiches p├⌐dagogiques faciles ├á reproduire et ├á partager pour utiliser chacun de ces outils, et explique comment int├⌐grer ces outils dans le processus de planification.

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.

Nations are not helplessif the military decides to stage a coup. On dozens of occasions in recentdecades, even in the face of intimidated political leaders and internationalindifference, civil society has risen up to challenge putschists throughlarge-scale nonviolent direct action and noncooperation. How can anunarmed citizenry mobilize so quickly and defeat a powerful militarycommitted to seizing control of the government? What accounts for thesuccess or failure of nonviolent resistance movements to reverse coups andconsolidate democratic governance?This monograph presents in-depth case studies and analysis intended toimprove our understanding of the strategic utility of civil resistance againstmilitary takeovers; the nature of civil resistance mobilization against coups; therole of civil resistance against coups in countries’ subsequent democratizationefforts (or failure thereof). It offers key lessons for pro-democracy activistsand societies vulnerable to military usurpation of power; national civilian andmilitary bureaucracies; external state and non-state agencies supportive ofdemocracy; and future scholarship on this subject.

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.

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.