-
What's New
Policy Makers, Scholars, Activists Embrace ICNC’s “Right to Assist” Proposal
ICNC’s proposed Right to Assist doctrine is “a framework that would guide collaboration and international support to civil resistance movements… around the world,” ICNC President Hardy Merriman told a Washington audience on October 16.
The doctrine is the brainchild of Merriman and ICNC Founder Peter Ackerman, who maintain that strategic external support can avert atrocities and civil war. Ackerman and Merriman expound on the theory in their ICNC Special Report, Preventing Atrocities: From A Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance.
Merriman introduced the Right to Assist at a co-sponsored event with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). In opening remarks, USIP President Nancy Lindborg stated that “This report provides practical guidance for how the international community can best support movements without undermining their legitimacy, their safety or their agency.” […]
Read More! -
ICNC Interview Series
We are proud to present the new “ICNC Interview Series,” featuring our conversations with some of the world’s most ardent and influential dissidents, leaders and scholars in civil resistance.
These interviews provide first-hand accounts of civil resistance movements and campaigns from across the globe, many of them historic, some of them history-in-the-making. The interviewees also discuss strategies and tactics, lessons learned and the challenges and rewards of nonviolent resistance.
Included in this series launch are ICNC’s interviews with:
• Ivan Marovic, movement leader, Serbia
• Evgeniya Chirikova, movement leader, Russia
• Dr. Jonathan Pinckney, researcher and scholar, U.S.
• Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, scientist and author, Palestine
• Mohsen Sazegara, dissident, Iran
• Vladimir Kara-Murza, dissident and movement leader, RussiaWe invite you to tap into this knowledge and insight at any time, checking back frequently, as we continually add to our collection of compelling interviews.
Watch the interviews -
Civil Resistance can Reverse Democratic Backsliding
Read the Report
A new report by Brookings Institution titled The Democracy Playbook: Preventing and Reversing Democratic Backsliding offers a toolkit to reverse democratic backsliding. Critically, the report integrates institutional means of protecting democracy with civil society- and civil resistance-based approaches, making it a significant milestone in synergizing top-down and bottom-up forms of pressure. ICNC offered input on the publication, which also references ICNC’s research and work. -
New ‘Minds of the Movement’ blog post: ‘Corruption in the Balkans: An Out-Spin of the Rise of Authoritarianism?’
Minds of the Movement blogger Sonja Stojadinovic writes: Corruption is spreading through the Balkans as countries like Bulgaria, Serbia, and Macedonia are impacted by the government-backed construction sector. Monuments, renovations, demolitions, and kitsch construction projects are being commissioned by state governments—not to create something that will last for future generations, but instead to launder money for government officials and private businesses. This has given momentum to grassroots, unarmed resistance in each of these countries, against the backdrop of a palpable rise in authoritarianism throughout the region. […]
Read Now!
-
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.
Learn More -
New From ICNC Press
Read Now
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. -
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!
Register now! -
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
-
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.
Learn More -
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!
Register now! -
Calls from ICNC Academic Initiatives
Learn More
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 has all of the current and past calls for the ICNC’s programs, such as learning opportunities, curriculum support, and research grants. -
ICNC Press and Publications
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 MerrimanEvents 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
-
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.
Learn More -
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 MerrimanEvents 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)….
Read More -
Powering to Peace: Integrated Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding Strategies
by Veronique Dudouet
Learn More
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.” -
Supporting Civil Resistance Movements: Considerations for Human Rights Funders and Organizations
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. […]
Learn More
-
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.
Learn More -
Giorgi Meladze reports for Minds of the Movement from Tbilisi: Last week, protests resurged in the Republic of Georgia when Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, failed to pass election reform ahead of the 2020 parliamentary elections. The party had promised this concession to pro-democracy protesters last summer, following political controversy that ushered in a new era of Georgian history. Although the country’s pro-democracy movement is still in its early stages, it’s never too early to evoke some key strategic considerations. […]
Read now! -
Minds of the Movement blogger Sonja Stojadinovic writes: Corruption is spreading through the Balkans as countries like Bulgaria, Serbia, and Macedonia are impacted by the government-backed construction sector. Monuments, renovations, demolitions, and kitsch construction projects are being commissioned by state governments—not to create something that will last for future generations, but instead to launder money for government officials and private businesses. This has given momentum to grassroots, unarmed resistance in each of these countries, against the backdrop of a palpable rise in authoritarianism throughout the region. […]
Read now! -
Minds of the Movement blogger Andy Buschmann writes: A German radio station recently contacted me to ask why Hong Kong protesters have started using Pepe the Frog as a mascot for their pro-democracy protest. This question is intriguing considering that internet memes of Pepe are known in the West for their hatred and racist slurs, rather than freedom and democracy. Thus, many people find the recurrence of Pepe in the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong baffling, irritating, racist, or take it as evidence of “US intervention.”
Various media outlets have since featured the topic but without paying much attention to explanation […]
Read now!