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What's New
Apply for a 2020 Doctoral, Post-Doctoral, and Junior Faculty Research Fellowship on Civil Resistance
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict’s (ICNC) Doctoral, Post-Doctoral, and Junior Faculty Research Fellowship empowers researchers to contribute innovative research to the study and practice of civil resistance.
Selected fellows will conduct research on one of ICNC’s priority topics and publish their research in peer-reviewed publications, such as a journal article, book, or book chapter. There is also the possibility of publishing research through ICNC’s Special Report series or Monograph series.
Each fellowship award will be between $2,000 and $8,000. Additionally, research fellows will be mentored by one of ICNC’s Academic Council members.
Please read through the Who Should Apply eligibility requirements carefully before submitting an application, as there are different requirements for doctoral, post-doctoral, and junior faculty candidates.
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Share the Knowledge: ICNC Now Accepting Webinar Proposals
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) welcomes the submission of presentation proposals for our Webinar Series on Civil Resistance for 2020. ICNC’s Webinars are 60-minute online events that combine a 30-minute individual or group presentation on critical ideas, cases, and questions related to civil resistance and nonviolent movements with a substantive Q & A discussion with the audience. Webinars are streamed live and the recordings are posted on ICNC’s website for future viewing.
Application Deadline: To be considered as a presenter for ICNC’s 2020 Webinar Series, please submit your proposal by March 31. Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Click here for more information on the guidelines for ICNC webinars
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Apply for a 2020 Rapid Field Research & Data Collection Grant!
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) welcomes the submission of proposals for our 2020 Rapid Field Research Data Collection Grant. ICNC recognizes the value of researching and documenting civil resistance campaigns and movements while they happen, or shortly thereafter. In order to ensure that there is a mechanism to support local partners—such as activists, scholars, and journalists—in recording, documenting and analyzing movements, ICNC offers grants of up to $2,500.
Before submitting a proposal, please read the full guidelines and information to collect.
Proposal Guidelines: ICNC is interested in civil resistance campaigns and movements, which are understood as sustained collective efforts (that may be local, regional, or national) in which ordinary people engage in nonviolent tactics to secure human rights, freedom, or justice. Relevant campaigns and movements may have succeeded, failed, or still be in the middle of their struggle. The larger and/or more impactful the campaign or movement, the more interested ICNC is in its discovery. However, in highly repressive political environments, even small campaigns and movements may be very notable and are of interest.
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New Blog Post
‘Minds of the Movement’ author Tom Hastings writes:
In 2016, James Hansen, revered NASA Goddard Space Center climatologist and official who announced publicly in 1988, “Global warming has arrived,” stood next to me outside a North Dakota courtroom. The trial of Michael Foster, one of the five climate activists who became known as the Valve Turners, was happening on the other side of the door.
I was there as a court-certified expert in civil disobedience and the necessity defense as a U.S. tradition, and Dr. Hansen was there as arguably the world’s premier expert on climate chaos. We were both on the witness list as Michael Foster faced up to 26 years in prison for “criminal trespass and criminal mischief, conspiracy to commit criminal mischief and reckless endangerment”—for having caused perhaps $5 in property damage (cutting a padlock) and turning off the tar sands oil pipeline for a little while […]
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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, and Catalan.
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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
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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. -
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 and ArabicEvents 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 and ArabicEvents 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 Blog Post
Tom Hastings writes: “In 2016, James Hansen, revered NASA Goddard Space Center climatologist and official who announced publicly in 1988, “Global warming has arrived,” stood next to me outside a North Dakota courtroom. The trial of Michael Foster, one of the five climate activists who became known as the Valve Turners, was happening on the other side of the door. […]”
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Obama Scholar Wafa Eben-Beri writes: “The Al Hrak al-Shababe movement gained traction largely thanks to its strategy of putting solidarity and unity first. In fact, the movement’s list of accomplishments—both concrete and abstract—is compelling. Alongside successfully thwarting the Prawer plan, the movement also re-examined its internal inequalities as a necessary step to resisting external discrimination and oppression. […]”
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Laurence Cox writes: “The last decade saw some very powerful movements—yet almost by definition their existence means that if many of us see a need for change, we have not yet succeeded in making that change central to our societies. What can we do, beyond more of the same? Part of the answer lies in what makes a movement a movement. Behind their visible, external aspect—protest, resistance, and other challenges to institutions and powerful actors, together with trying to change people’s minds—lies the work of organizing and self-education, building networks and coalitions, discussing who “we” are, and thinking about what we are doing and how we can do it better. […]”
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