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What's New
Three Chosen for 2020 ICNC Research Fellowships
Two PhD candidates and one post-doctoral scholar have been selected for ICNC’s 2020 Research Fellowships for doctoral, post-doctoral and junior faculty researchers.
Contributing to the growing scholarship on civil resistance topics, the new fellows are:
Ratanak Khun, a PhD student in political science at Northern Illinois University.His research topic is “Civil Resistance against Land Grabs and Forced Evictions: Cambodia’s Landless People Movements in Comparative Perspective.”
Sooyeon Kang, a PhD candidate at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She is researching “From Reform to Resignation: Explaining Why Some Protest Movements Escalate Their Demands (Demand Escalation Database).”
John J. Chin, PhD, a fellow with the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University. John’s topic is “Why Anti-Coup Civil Resistance Works.”Read more about the new Research Fellows, including abstracts of their projects, here.
Read more about the Doctoral, Post-Doctoral and Junior Faculty Research Fellowships here.
Learn more about other research and learning opportunities for scholars and students here.
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Scholars awarded Curriculum Development Fellowships for university-led courses
ICNC has awarded Curriculum Development Fellowships to six scholars who will design courses on nonviolent conflict for university students and professionals. The curriculum may be for classroom-based instruction, online learning, or a combination of those formats.
The 2020-21 Fellows are (in alphabetical order):
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Mario “Mayong” J. Aguja – Mindanao State University, Philippines·
Eric Lepp – University of Waterloo, Canada·
Nara Roberta Silva – Brooklyn Institute for Social Resistance, USA
· Saira Bano Orakzai – Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan·
Sergio Alberto Zabaleta-Bejarano – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia·
Katie Zanoni – San Diego City College, USARead more about the new Fellows and their curriculum projects.
Learn more about ICNC’s Fellowships for Curriculum Development and Teaching Support.
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LISTEN: Interview with ICNC President & CEO Hardy Merriman
Radio hosts Jim Johnson and Jamie McMillin recently interviewed ICNC President and CEO Hardy Merriman about civil resistance, current events, international support to nonviolent movements, training, and other topics in two wide-ranging interviews on their “Solutions to Violence” radio show.
Listen to interview 1 (starts at 2:44):
Listen to interview 2 (starts at 3:03)The program is a feature of FORward Radio, a community-based station sponsored by the Louisville Chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). It airs thrice weekly on WFMP-FM 106.5 in Louisville, Kentucky.
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New Blog Post
Minds of the Movement author Pearce Edwards writes:
The global anti-nuclear movement—particularly relevant this month during the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings—received renewed attention last year, when a court convicted seven Catholic activists for their nonviolent direct action against the Kings Bay nuclear submarine base in the U.S. state of Georgia. The direct action, described as a “prophetic statement,” sprang from a peace movement in the Catholic Church that rejects the construction and maintenance of nuclear weapons. Last month, the United for Peace and Justice anti-nuclear coalition called the direct action an “urgent warning” for people concerned about the prospect of nuclear war.
As I’ve discovered through my dissertation research, religious groups in fact interact with civil resistance movements in an array of ways, from explicit participation such as the example above, to implicit support as a third-party ally—and quite often, both simultaneously […]
Read more!
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For Activists & Organizers
ICNC provides practical, relevant information and educational opportunities about civil resistance to activists and organizers around the world.
Our view is that nonviolent struggle is a social science that can be studied and understood. Practitioners can increase their chances of success by learning lessons from each other as well as from cutting edge academic scholarship on this topic.
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New from ICNC Press
The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns by Ivan Marovic, 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.It is available for purchase or free download in English, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese (Brazilian).
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Visit our full resource library to find hundreds of resources on civil resistance in English and over 70 languages.
Or, if you are interested in civil resistance and don’t know where to start, we’ve made a list of general introductory resources–many of them short articles–to introduce you to the field. See our list of ten key resources for activists and organizers.
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ICNC Translations Program
Translating civil resistance literature into diverse languages is one of the most powerful ways to spread knowledge and increase the effectiveness of nonviolent movements struggling for rights, freedom, and justice. Learn more about our translations program.
We also currently host resources on civil resistance in over 70 languages and dialects on our website.
Find Translated Resources
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For Scholars & Students
The discipline of civil resistance has developed enormously in recent years, driven by new quantitative and qualitative scholarly research, as well as by numerous nonviolent movements around the world.
ICNC runs a number of grant-supported academic and educational programs to meet the growing demand for cutting edge research, applied knowledge and practical skills in this field. Look at our research, writing, teaching and other educational offerings and review current calls for proposals or applications.
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Academic Online Curriculum
ICNC’s Academic Online Curriculum on Civil Resistance (AOC) is an online resource to advance curriculum development, teaching, and research on civil resistance. It offers an extensive and regularly updated set of resources in this field, organized into clearly structured topics and case studies, and drawn in part from content that we and various academic collaborators developed for the ICNC university seminars we’ve led since 2009.Anyone can register to use the AOC at any time and it is free to use.
Topics on the AOC include:
– Civil Resistance: Nature, Ideas and History
– Strategic Considerations in Civil Resistance Struggles
– Types of Civil Resistance StrugglesAnd more!
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Calls from ICNC Academic Initiatives
Throughout the year, ICNC is offering a number of academic opportunities, resources, and support that it makes available to scholars and students. The field of civil resistance has grown immensely and these academic programs aim to respond to the growing demand for knowledge and skills and contribute to expanding the quality of education, research, and curriculum related to civil resistance. This page includes the current and past calls for the ICNC’s educational and research programs, such as learning opportunities, curriculum support, and research grants.One of our calls, the Rapid Field Research and Data Collection Program, accepts applications on a rolling basis and interested applicants can apply for the program throughout the year.
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New from ICNC Press:
Preventing Mass Atrocities: From a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance
by Peter Ackerman and Hardy Merriman
Available in: English, Arabic, and SpanishEvents 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, we argue for a new normative framework called The Right to Assist (RtoA)….
See ICNC Press Publications
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For the Policy Community
Civil resistance movements have a proven role in advancing human rights, democratic governance, and curtailing corruption. They are a critical factor in addressing root causes of human suffering and reducing deadly violence in the world.
It is incumbent for members of the policy community who care about these issues to understand how movements work; their historic record of making change; and when, how, and under what circumstances external actors can take actions that are helpful to movements.
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New From ICNC Press:
Preventing Mass Atrocities: From a Responsbility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance
by Peter Ackerman and Hardy Merriman
Available in: English, Arabic, and SpanishEvents 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, we argue for a new normative framework called The Right to Assist (RtoA)….
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Powering to Peace: Integrated Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding Strategies
by Veronique Dudouet
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This report explores the complementary ideas and practices that civil resistance and peacebuilding approaches present, each from different points along the conflict transformation spectrum. Both strategies oppose violence in all its forms, and seek to pursue just peace by peaceful means. However, they take different approaches to conflict transformation, in particular how they analyze primary causes of violence and how they respond to conflict. Drawing on a number of case studies, this report aims to help practitioners and scholars understand how integrating these strategies can help establish a path for “powering to peace.” -
A Movement-centered Support Model: Consideration for Human Rights Funders and Organizations
ICNC President Hardy Merriman writes: “What makes civil resistance movements effective? If funders and human rights organizations can identify key factors that answer this question, then their efforts can be oriented towards trying to support the development and growth of those factors. […]”
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Minds of the Movement Blog
Minds of the Movement is a blog for those interested in the ideas and experiences of people on the front line of civil resistance, and those who seek to understand the art and science of nonviolent struggle.
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New post
ICNC’s Maciej Bartkowski writes: “Let’s say that you serve in the police, interior security, intelligence services, or the military. A ruler at the helm orders you to repress a pro-democracy movement and its unarmed people who are going out to protest against him. You do not agree with what the ruler and his political sycophants expect from you. Deep down, you know you would be no longer serving the country and its people if you were to follow those orders. You are looking for ideas on how to delay, derail, or go against the ruler’s orders to suppress the nonviolent movement. You are not alone. […]”
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Lisha Sterling of Geeks Without Bounds writes: “In activist circles, sooner or later people can become concerned about the possibility of infiltrators in our midst. During intense periods of activity, I know of times when that concern has become nearly overwhelming. People look at others with suspicion, and mistakes, missteps, or miscommunications by a friend can become a source of doubt. It’s important to note that at such times, the fear of infiltrators itself can become a poison of its own. […]”
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Lee A. Smithey y Lester R. Kurtz escriben: “El 8 de noviembre de 2011, estudiantes de la Universidad de California (UC) en la ciudad de Davis (EEUU) ocuparon noviolentamente una acera peatonal, como parte de una campaña desplegada en todo el sistema de sedes de la UC, para protestar contra un alza en los costos de matrícula y el corte de fondos a las universidades. […]”
Read now!