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Miranda Rivers

Program Specialist, Nonviolent Action

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Miranda Rivers is a program specialist for the program on nonviolent action at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she conducts applied research on social movements and supports training and education efforts for movements working to advance justice and build sustainable peace.

Prior to joining USIP, Rivers provided communications and programming support for ENDA Tiers Monde, an international organization based in Dakar, Senegal that works with community-based groups on issues related to sustainable development.

Rivers also worked at the Somali American United Council in Phoenix, Arizona, where she spent several years developing a curriculum and teaching an English-language program to refugees from several countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria. Miranda began her career as a news associate for the Associated Press, writing and editing breaking news and more in-depth stories on a range of topics.

Miranda holds a master's degree in international relations with a focus on conflict resolution and negotiation from American University’s School of International Service. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Arizona State University.

Publications By Miranda

What Guatemala’s Anti-Corruption Movement Can Learn from the Past

What Guatemala’s Anti-Corruption Movement Can Learn from the Past

Thursday, January 21, 2021

By: Miranda Rivers; Carlos Mendoza

Guatemalans have once again risen up by the thousands to demand major changes in how their country is governed. Their demands are intended to usher in reforms that will improve quality of life for citizens reeling from the impacts of two deadly hurricanes, as well as health and economic crises that have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The demonstrations are reminiscent of the 2015 protests that prompted the resignations of top officials, including the country’s president. However, that movement fell short of broader, structural change. This time around, protesters can draw on lessons learned from the past to achieve long-term reform and target Guatemala’s persistent systems of corruption.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Nonviolent Action; Democracy & Governance

Curbing Corruption after Conflict: Anticorruption Mobilization in Guatemala

Curbing Corruption after Conflict: Anticorruption Mobilization in Guatemala

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

By: Walter Flores; Miranda Rivers

This report analyzes the fight against corruption in Guatemala by social movements over the past five years, homing in on their major successes and challenges in working to advance transparency, accountability, and good governance. The lessons drawn from these efforts can be applicable for other movements around the world operating in similar contexts. The work also has a larger bearing for international actors helping states build peace and democratic governance following prolonged violent conflict.

Type: Special Report

Nonviolent Action

COVID Raises the Stakes for Zimbabwe’s Civil Society Movement

COVID Raises the Stakes for Zimbabwe’s Civil Society Movement

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

By: Miranda Rivers; Precious Ndlovu

Countries worldwide that suffer or risk violent conflicts face a new hazard amid the COVID-19 pandemic: governments’ use of the disease as a pretext to curtail democratic freedoms and punish opposition. As COVID has spread across Africa, Zimbabwe is emerging as one of the countries most vulnerable to the disease—and most illustrative of its threat to peace and democratization efforts on the continent. Two and a half years after a military coup installed President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his government has used the health crisis to arrest members of the opposition and journalists, and divert humanitarian aid to ruling party supporters.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Health; Nonviolent Action

People Power’s Transformative Role in America’s National Reckoning

People Power’s Transformative Role in America’s National Reckoning

Monday, June 22, 2020

By: Miranda Rivers; Nicholas Zaremba; Maria J. Stephan

Since the murder of George Floyd, protests against police brutality and anti-Black racism have shaken the United States, with shockwaves reverberating around the world. Demonstrators have come out in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and over 1,600 towns and cities across the country, representing the broadest protests in U.S. history. Elsewhere, there have been global solidarity protests for Black Lives Matter and demonstrations calling for an end to racism in Tunis, Pretoria, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul, and dozens of other cities around the world. The Black-led popular uprising has led to a national reckoning on the issue of systemic racism and police brutality against Black people in the United States.

Type: Blog

Nonviolent Action

Nonviolent Action in the Time of Coronavirus

Nonviolent Action in the Time of Coronavirus

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

By: Jonathan Pinckney; Miranda Rivers

Last year saw a wave of nonviolent action movements, mostly relying on tactics of large public protests and sit-ins as people took to the streets from Hong Kong to Chile to demand greater democracy, economic equality, and social justice. Some of these movements, like the revolution that successfully ousted Sudan’s longtime authoritarian ruler Omar al-Bashir, achieved many of their goals. Others, like the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, were still seeking major demands from the government when news of the rapid spread of a novel coronavirus began coming out of central China.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Health; Nonviolent Action

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