Daryn Cambridge and Nicola Barrach facilitate a workshop for high school teachers participating in the Close Up Foundation Teacher Program. The workshop explores different ways teachers can introduce key ideas of nonviolent conflict in their classrooms and engage their students in the history and core dynamics of civil resistance.
Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) January 13-14, 2011
Dr. Maciej Bartkowski and Hardy Merriman presented a module titled "Civil Resistance as a Force for Change and Peace" as part of a short course on "Non-Violent Civic Action: Negotiations, Strategies and Tactics" organized by the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention
USIP Headquarters / Washington, DC October 19 - December 9, 2010 Tuesdays (in-class session), 6pm - 8pm and Thursdays (online session)
"Civil Resistance and the Dynamics of Nonviolent Conflict" is a professional level course developed by ICNC and presented under the auspices of the United States Institute of Peace.
Maciej Bartkowski was in charge of leading an educational seminar on civil resistance to encourage the development and implementation of a teaching curriculum on the subject of civil resistance. Participants included academics, activists, organizational leaders, and other civil society actors.
Christian Brothers University / Memphis, TN October 22-24, 2010
Daryn Cambridge facilitated two workshops on People Power: The Game of Civil Resistance. The first presentation was for high school students attending the Youth Conference organized by PeaceJam. The second was for teachers, educators, and activists attending the main conference.
ICNC has launched a special curriculum support program to promote development of seminars on civil resistance in non-US based academic institutions, preferably in recently established democracies and developing countries. ICNC is looking for academics interested in studying, researching and teaching civil resistance, its tactical effects and strategic impact on the problems it strives to address, and its long-term influence on rights, institutions, culture and civil society. The academic workshop for the 2010 participants was held in Istanbul, Turkey between July 26-28, 2010.
European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), Barcelona, Spain July 19 - 24, 2010
During the WOCMES conference ICNC sponsored a panel titled “Strategic Nonviolent Action in the Middle East,” that looked at a series of case studies of nonviolent resistance campaigns in the Middle East. The panel was organized by Stephen Zunes and chaired by Maciej Bartkowski, who was also the panel's discussant.
Every two years, members of the International Peace Research Association meet at their global conference.
In 2010, Professor Kurt Schock, the ICNC academic advisor, was a co-convener of one of the panels at IPRA titled “Nonviolence Commission,” whose program is featured below.
Council of Europe / Palais de l'Europe, Strasbourg, France June 28 - July 2, 2010
Peter Ackerman and Arwa Hassan spoke at a thematic conference titled, "Civil Resistance, Democratization, and Democratic Sustainability."
Maciej Bartkowski, Shaazka Beyerle, Vanessa Ortiz, and Anne-Marie Codur organized a number of workshops on the dynamics of civil resistance, the role of civil resistance in democratization, and the role of civil resistance in anti-corruption struggles.
Tufts University / Medford, Massachusetts June 20-25, 2010
The fifth annual Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict is an executive education program in the advanced interdisciplinary study of nonviolent conflict for representatives of the media, civil society, international organizations and the policy world.
Emory Conference Center / Atlanta, GA May 19-22, 2010
As part of its education mission, ICNC organized a two-day academic training for college and university instructors, faculty members and doctoral students on teaching and studying the subject of civil resistance.
Columbia University / New York, NY April 15-17, 2010
Maciej Bartkowski organized a panel on Friday April 16, titled, "Rediscovering Nonviolent History: Civil Resistance Beneath Eulogized Violence in the Struggles for National Independence and Liberation." The chair of the panel was Matt Meyer, Peace and Justice Studies Association (IPRA).
GoToWebinar Thursday, April 8th / 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT
Dr. Erica Chenoweth, Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University will look at the strategic advantage of nonviolent struggle and civil resistance. Armed insurgency may have triumphed in the Algerian war of independence, the Chinese Revolution, and the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan. These cases, among others, have convinced many observers that violent insurgency is likely to succeed. Moreover, insurgents often claim that they turn to violence as a last resort, having exhausted all other methods of seeking redress for their grievances. Professor Chenoweth challenges both claims, arguing that nonviolent resistance has actually been more effective in the 20th century than violent resistance. She presents a new data set, which provides robust statistical evidence of the strategic superiority of nonviolent resistance, even in cases where the opponent regime is brutal. The research implies that violent resistance is seldom necessary, as many insurgents claim. Rather, civil resistance can be an effective substitute for insurgency in civil wars.
"The Digital Duel: Resistance and Repression in an Online World"
Middlebury College / Middlebury, VT April 6, 2010
Daryn Cambridge gives a presentation titled, "The Digital Duel: Resistance and Repression in an Online World" looking at how emerging digital tools and online communication are impacting the ways in which people around the world struggle nonviolently for human rights, justice, and democratic self-rule. In addition, it will look at how these communication technologies are also being used as tools of repression by the very governments and structures these movements oppose. Looking at the evolution of communication and information sharing as a tool of resistance, Daryn will expand on the emerging battle for rights waged through online, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and technologies such as cellphones and digital cameras that advance the utility of these platforms.
WEBINAR - "Nonviolent Strategy, Tactics, and Collective Identity"
Thursday, March 25, 2010 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST
Dr. Lee Smithey, Professor of Sociology at Swarthmore College, will look at how tactical choices and their execution are closely related to the construction of collective identities in social movements. Studying collective identity has helped social movement scholars understand why people participate in collective action, but less attention has been paid to the relationships between tactical choices and collective identity. Strategies and tactics can reflect, reaffirm, or challenge collective identities. Innovative nonviolent methods can create tension as activists work to resolve what they do with who they feel they are. However, much of the power of nonviolent action lies in the ways tactics and methods leverage culture by tapping into identities that demarcate or crosscut movements, opponents, allies, and by-standing publics.
WEBINAR - "Nonviolent Action in the Islamic World"
Thursday, March 11, 2010 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST
Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, discussed the long history of strategic nonviolent action throughout the Islamic world, in the Middle East and beyond. Based in part on the social contract implied in Islamic teachings which advocate the withdrawal of obedience from unjust authority, nonviolent civil insurrections have played a major role in the struggle for freedom and human rights for more than a century. Prof. Zunes, looked at case studies from Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Mali, Western Sahara, Indonesia, Pakistan, and others.
Presentation by Hardy Merriman: “Understanding Nonviolent Power" Hardy Merriman will discuss nonviolent movements for human rights around the world, with particular focus on how nonviolent movements wield power, organize, develop strategies and tactics, and win against adversaries who are willing to use violent repression.
Presentation by Hardy Merriman: "Nonviolent Power in the Field and in the Classroom" The first half of this presentation will provide a clear definition of what nonviolent action is, explain why nonviolent action works, and address the record that nonviolent movements have achieved in furthering freedom, justice, and rights. The second half of this presentation will discuss how nonviolent action is relevant to, and can be incorporated into, other academic disciplines. It will conclude with a brief review of materials that professors and scholars can draw on for teaching and research purposes.
Les Kurtz, professor of Sociology at George Mason University and author/editor of several books including, "The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict," explored the "paradox of repression"--efforts by elites to repress civil resistance movements that often end up strengthening those movements instead of weakening them. Examining key historic cases of "repression management" by movement organizers, Kurtz showed how repression can erode a regime's pillars of support, promote questions if not outright defections among power elites, and often become a turning point in leading toward a movement's success.
International Studies Association (ISA) Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana February 17-20, 2010
Dr. Maciej Bartkowski, Dr. Stephen Zunes, Dr. Cynthia Boaz, and Dr. Kurt Schock will speak on a panel about civil resistance at the International Studies Association Conference. On Wednesday, 1:45pm - 3:30pm, Dr. Stephen Zunes and Dr. Maciej Bartkowski will speak on the panel, "The Role of Strategic Nonviolent Action in Civil Resistance." Dr. Lee Smithey will speak on the panel, "Repression Management and the Arts of Nonviolent Strategy." Dr. Cynthia Boaz will speak on the panel, "The Women's Resistance Movement in Iran: Strategic Directions."
WEBINAR - "The Core Dynamics of Civil Resistance"
Thursday, February 4, 2010 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Jack DuVall, President of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and co-author of the book "A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict," launched ICNC's Academic Webinar Series with a presentation introducing the phenomena of nonviolent conflict and the core dynamics of civil resistance.
"More than Peace Signs and Flowers: The Nonviolence Movement in the 21st Century"
American University / Washington, DC Tuesday, January 26, 2010 5:00pm - 6:30pm
What is nonviolence? How do people get involved and trained? Is it possible to maintain nonviolence in the face of oppression or direct violence? When is nonviolence effective? Can I support nonviolence from outside of the movement? If you have been asking yourself these questions, do not miss this great opportunity. You will hear different experiences, insights and future prospects on nonviolence from professionals working in the field. The organizations represented in this event will be Nonviolence International, the Ruckus Society, and the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
Vanessa Ortiz, Senior Director for Civic and Field Learning, and Dr. Cynthia Boaz, ICNC Academic Advisor, facilitated a session on the strategic dimensions of nonviolent struggle during WRI's 2010 conference, "Nonviolent Livelihood Struggles and Global Militarism: Links and Strategies." The conference brought together over 150 activists and organizers from around the world to investigate the links between local nonviolent livelihood struggles and global militarism, including war profiteering.
