Thursday, May 13th, 2010
12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Dr. Maciej Bartkowski, Senior Director for Education and Research at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict presents on the long term impact of civil resistance after a nonviolent struggle ends and a democratic transition is launched. Does civil resistance create a long lasting effect on the society and politics? Do earlier practices of civil resistance have an impact on later processes of democratic transformation? How exactly is a propitious effect of civil resistance on democratization and democratic consolidation generated and visible in practice? What analytical tools can be used to study the residual impact of civil resistance?

All the above inquiries will direct our conversation to the very essence of what civil resistance is, what kind of social capital it might help to create, and how a long-lasting effect of civil resistance is evident in a concrete case of a major nonviolent struggle. Accordingly, the presentation will focus on civil resistance and the Solidarity movement in communist Poland. The talk will illustrate a residual effect of civil resistance-generated social capital on Polish society and politics in the immediate and long-term following the 1989 changes.

Additional Resources

• Civil Resistance as a Foundation of Democracy to Be..The Legacy of Nonviolent Struggle in the Democratization of Poland (webinar)

Thursday, May 6th, 2010
12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Dr. Roddy Brett, Professor at the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, presents on the role and impact of social movements in the context of Guatemala’s peace process, which was a key aspect of the country’s process of democratization to resolve the protracted and genocidal internal armed conflict (1960-1996). The presentation argues that the evolution of strategic nonviolent conflict was characterized not only by a shift in the identity of movement activists, but also a change in the strategies that movements used, as they increasingly engaged in formal mechanisms accompanying the peace process and participated in the state and political parties.

Thursday, April 8, 2010
12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Dr. Erica Chenoweth, Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University looks at the strategic advantage of nonviolent struggle and civil resistance. Armed insurgency may have triumphed in the Algerian war of independence, the Chinese Revolution, and the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan. These cases, among others, have convinced many observers that violent insurgency is likely to succeed. Moreover, insurgents often claim that they turn to violence as a last resort, having exhausted all other methods of seeking redress for their grievances.

Professor Chenoweth challenges both claims, arguing that nonviolent resistance has actually been more effective in the 20th century than violent resistance. She presents a new data set, which provides robust statistical evidence of the strategic superiority of nonviolent resistance, even in cases where the opponent regime is brutal. The research implies that violent resistance is seldom necessary, as many insurgents claim. Rather, civil resistance can be an effective substitute for insurgency in civil wars.

Additional Resources

• Presentation Slides

Thursday, March 25, 2010
12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

This webinar is transcribed into Chinese

Dr. Lee Smithey, Professor of Sociology at Swarthmore College, looks at how tactical choices and their execution are closely related to the construction of collective identities in social movements. Studying collective identity has helped social movement scholars understand why people participate in collective action, but less attention has been paid to the relationships between tactical choices and collective identity. Strategies and tactics can reflect, reaffirm, or challenge collective identities. Innovative nonviolent methods can create tension as activists work to resolve what they do with who they feel they are. However, much of the power of nonviolent action lies in the ways tactics and methods leverage culture by tapping into identities that demarcate or crosscut movements, opponents, allies, and by-standing publics.

Additional Resources

• Presentation Slides

Thursday, March 11, 2010
12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, discusses the long history of strategic nonviolent action throughout the Islamic world, in the Middle East and beyond. Based in part on the social contract implied in Islamic teachings which advocate the withdrawal of obedience from unjust authority, nonviolent civil insurrections have played a major role in the struggle for freedom and human rights for more than a century. Dr. Zunes, looks at case studies from Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Mali, Western Sahara, Indonesia, Pakistan, and others.

Additional Resources

• Presentation Slides

Thursday, February 18, 2010
1:30pm – 2:30pm EST

Dr. Les Kurtz, professor of Sociology at George Mason University and author/editor of several books including, “The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict,” explores the “paradox of repression,” – efforts by elites to repress a movement that often end up strengthening a civil resistance movement rather than weakening it. Examining key historic cases of “repression management” by activists, he episode choose your story hack shows how repression can erode a regime’s pillars of support, promote questions if not outright defections among power elites, and often become a turning point in leading toward a movement’s success. asdf

Additional Resources

• Presentation Slides