Nonviolent Conflict Today
 In
the first decade of the 21st century, nonviolent groups are seeking
to displace arbitrary rule in nations such as Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe.
Nonviolent campaigns for self-determination are ongoing in places such
as Tibet, West Papua, and the Palestinian territories, and nonviolent
action for human rights and democracy is also underway in Iran, Cuba,
and other countries.
Many who battle oppression now recognize the potential of nonviolent strategies to prevail in conflicts with unjust authorities and to produce freer, open societies, and they often seek to learn more about how this is done.
 Nevertheless,
every year tens of thousands of people around the world are asked to
fight for their rights or interests by joining groups dedicated to violent
insurrection or terror. This occurs even though violence often fails
to accomplish its users' goals and is always highly destructive to their
societies.
Several conditions still impede the choice of nonviolent power as the
driving force of conflict: (1) worldwide ignorance of the success of
nonviolent strategies in past conflict, (2) the stereotype of "nonviolence"
as a religious or behavioral preference rather than an alternative means
of fighting for political and national goals, (3) the tendency of the
global news media to neglect coverage of nonviolent conflict, and the
related assumption that violent clashes in a conflict produce the outcome,
(4) low levels of attention and support for civilian-based, nonviolent
movements fighting for rights and democracy, from international organizations
and governments, and (5) the scarcity of practical know-how and specific
skills in strategic nonviolent action among key participants in popular
movements in many places around the world.
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict was created to rectify
these problems and address these needs.
 Record
of Nonviolent Conflict
In every decade of the past century, on five continents, popular movements
using nonviolent strategies overthrew oppressive regimes, stymied military
occupiers, and brought freedom to their societies.
 Among
their weapons were protests such as petitions, walkouts, and mass demonstrations,
acts of noncooperation including boycotts, official resignations and
general strikes, and direct intervention such as sit-ins, blockades
and economic disruption. By undermining their opponents' pillars of
support, these nonviolent combatants produced decisive changes in their
societies, opening the way for democracy, justice and individual rights.
Gandhi's struggle for Indian independence, the Danes' resistance to
the Nazis in World War II, the American civil rights movement, the rise
of Solidarity in Poland, the people power revolution in the Philippines,
the campaign against General Pinochet in Chile, boycotts and strikes
against apartheid in South Africa, the civilian insurrections against
communism in Eastern Europe and Mongolia, and the student-led campaign
that toppled Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia are only a few of the historical
episodes in which nonviolent conflict was pivotal.
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