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What's New
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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***APPLY NOW***
ICNC’s Upcoming Online Course
“Civil Resistance Struggles: How Ordinary People Win Rights, Freedom, and Justice“
Course dates: April 20 – June 6, 2022
Application deadline: April 10, 2022
Image credit: Flickr user M.o.B 68, via CC BY-SA 2.0 license, Black Lives Matter M.o.B 68
ICNC is currently accepting applications for our 2022 Participant-led Online Course, “Civil Resistance Struggles: How Ordinary People Win Rights, Freedom, and Justice.”
Drawing from scholarly research and practitioner experience, it offers in depth knowledge of the field of civil resistance. More than 250 participants have taken this unique course since it launched in 2017. Whether you are an activist, scholar, or other practitioner, you now have the opportunity to join this large community of learners.
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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 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.
• Download
• Request a complimentary copy
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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.
• Download
• Purchase
• 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.
Learn More -
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, 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 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
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Nadine Bloch writes: “Though violent action can certainly have direct and immediate impacts, it is defined by destruction and harm. In contrast, human agency and creativity are unbounded by those limits. So when it comes to producing an anatomy of civil resistance, it truly takes a village… and the frontiers continue to expand. In that vein, I want to share some ideas—drawing from my personal and professional engagement as an artist, activist, movement trainer and organizer—about how to address potential gaps that persist in spite of Beer’s Civil Resistance Tactics in the 21st Century. […]” -
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Jason MacLeod writes: “La Boétie knew then, as do the Russians driving civil resistance in the cities and towns of Russia today, that the tyrant is one man. By himself he cannot do anything. Understand Putin’s sources of power and peel away the pillars of support that prop him up, and the man’s rule will collapse. Already we are seeing early signs of mass civilian-based noncooperation. Last week the entire staff at independent Russian TV station Dozhd walked out live on air while declaring “no to war” after being shut down over their coverage of the Ukrainian invasion. […]” -
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Mariam Azeem writes: “One movement coach I interviewed traced the ideal path from grievance to funding to capacity building. Although many readers will already be in the thick of organizing and fundraising, I thought it would still be helpful to share this model as a way to ground our thinking around movement capacity building. In a perfect world, a group would navigate the following steps: 1) Make a grievance known in your community to help form a critical mass of participants (this can be as few as 5 or 10 people). Take necessary security measures. […]”