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In Loving Memory of Peter Ackerman
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) mourns the loss of Dr. Peter Ackerman, ICNC’s Founding Chair, who died on April 26, 2022.Peter was a visionary in the field of civil resistance, earning his PhD in 1976 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His dissertation, titled “Strategic Aspects of Nonviolent Resistance Movements,” focused on a topic that would animate his work in this field for over forty years….
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The Checklist to End Tyranny
by Peter Ackerman
The Checklist to End Tyranny enables dissidents to become more strategic in their thinking and more skillful in their quest to win civil resistance campaigns in the 21st century.
Over a century of data shows that civil resistance campaigns—employing strikes, boycotts, mass protests, and many other nonviolent tactics—are the most powerful means for societies to confront authoritarians and achieve democracy and human rights.
If the world is to have a Fourth Democratic Wave expanding freedom over oppression, then pro-democracy activists waging civil resistance campaigns will lead the way.
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New Project:
Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave
Protesters brave heavy rain as they march against the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill on Sunday, August 18, 2019. Source: Studio Incendo, CC BY 2.0.
Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave is a joint project between the Atlantic Council and ICNC, aimed at catalyzing support for nonviolent pro-democracy movements fighting against authoritarian rule.
The project recognizes that civil resistance movements are one of the most powerful forces for democracy worldwide and therefore central to reversing the last fifteen years of democratic recession. It will result in a publication titled Defeating the Authoritarian Threat: A Playbook for Democratic Resurgence that centers on steps the United States and its allies can take to support these movements. The Playbook will:
1. Propose new approaches and tools to support pro-democracy civil resistance movements.
2. Advance a new international norm — the “Right to Assist” pro-democracy movements — and identify steps to advance and implement it.
3. Develop strategic and tactical options to constrain authoritarian regimes and drive up the cost of their repression.
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The Civil Resistance Funders Initiative
Civil resistance movements consist of people exercising their internationally recognized human rights. International advocacy organizations and philanthropies can play a leading role in supporting them.
To foster coordination and sharing of best practices in this work, we launched the Civil Resistance Funders Initiative, led by ICNC Senior Advisor Hardy Merriman, with the generous support of Humanity United.
A key output will be a new publication in 2023, tentatively titled: Turning the Tide on Authoritarianism: A Funder’s Guide to Supporting Civil Resistance.
This project draws on leading insights from practitioners and scholars, engaging movement-centered funders and INGOs as well as movement-oriented grantees, to develop a comprehensive resource for funders and international advocacy organizations.
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For Activists & Organizers
How Agent Provocateurs Harm Our Movements
by Steve Chase
History shows us that peoples’ movements are more likely to succeed when they have unity among supporters, widespread participation, strategic planning, and nonviolent discipline. Unsurprisingly, movement opponents use agent provocateurs—fake activists working undercover—to behave in counterproductive ways that undermine these four keys to success.
Drawing from international examples, and an in-depth case study of the US Black Liberation Movement, this volume explores how agent provocateurs—and agent provocateur-like behavior—make movements smaller, weaker, and easier to defeat. It also offers some ideas for how activists can inoculate their movements against such harms and increase their chances of success.
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• Watch the webinar presentation by the author
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Second edition of :
The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns
by Ivan Marovic
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.
The Second Edition released in March 2021 includes chapters on tactics and running a tactical planning workshop, and a Foreword by Hardy Merriman.
Free Download:
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• Second edition: English
• First edition: Catalan | French | Polish | Portuguese (Brazilian) | Spanish | Urdu -
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 or read our glossary of key terms.
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
Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave
Protesters brave heavy rain as they march against the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill on Sunday, August 18, 2019. Source: Studio Incendo, CC BY 2.0.
Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave is a joint project between the Atlantic Council and ICNC, aimed at catalyzing support for nonviolent pro-democracy movements fighting against authoritarian rule.
The project recognizes that civil resistance movements are one of the most powerful forces for democracy worldwide and therefore central to reversing the last fifteen years of democratic recession. It will result in a publication titled Defeating the Authoritarian Threat: A Playbook for Democratic Resurgence that centers on steps the United States and its allies can take to support these movements.
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ICNC Releases Major Study on International Support to Nonviolent Campaigns
ICNC is proud to present the newest addition to its popular Monograph Series, The Role of External Support in Nonviolent Campaigns: Poisoned Chalice or Holy Grail? by Drs. Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, authors of the groundbreaking civil resistance classic, Why Civil Resistance Works.
Published by ICNC Press, this new report employs original, qualitative, and quantitative data to examine the ways that external assistance impacted the characteristics and success rates of post-2000 revolutionary nonviolent uprisings.Download the full monograph for free here.
Watch the March 3 webinar with the renowned authors here.
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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, French, 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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A Movement-centered Support Model: Consideration for Human Rights Funders and Organizations
ICNC Senior Advisor 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 BLOG POST
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Julius Okoth writes: “To combat such deeply rooted political problems—in particular, corruption—nonviolent movements, faith-based groups, and other community actors have emerged as a last line of defense, with noticeable participation of media actors, to boot. Primarily through naming and shaming, petitions, and “scrutiny debates”, Kenyans’ anti-corruption campaigns have aimed to promote ethical leadership anchored in integrity, whether locally or nationally. Below, I provide an overview of one such campaign, the Red Card Campaign, with the goal of highlighting effective anti-corruption organizing during an election season. […]” -
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Chaminda Hettiarachchi writes: “Generating worldwide headlines, the popular #GotaGoHome movement in Sri Lanka just last week forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down. I addressed how this movement emerged in my previous blog post. I now want to now discuss tactics the protesters are using and the challenges they face as they continue to push for a fully functioning democratic government. The road will be a long one: Parliament just today elected Ranil Wickremesinghe, a loyal ally of ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as the new president. […]” -
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Chaminda Hettiarachchi writes: “Generating worldwide headlines, the popular #GotaGoHome movement in Sri Lanka just last week forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down. I addressed how this movement emerged in my previous blog post. I now want to now discuss tactics the protesters are using and the challenges they face as they continue to push for a fully functioning democratic government. The road will be a long one: Parliament just today elected Ranil Wickremesinghe, a loyal ally of ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as the new president. […]”