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Miranda Rivers

Senior Program Assistant, Nonviolent Action

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Miranda Rivers is a senior program assistant 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

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

Five Things You Need to Know About Foreign Funding for Social Movements

Five Things You Need to Know About Foreign Funding for Social Movements

Monday, June 24, 2019

By: Davin O'Regan; Miranda Rivers

From Kenya to Ukraine to Guatemala, citizen-led campaigns are fighting against corruption and demanding government accountability and transparency. Government donors and private foundation have increasingly supported such efforts. But, how does foreign funding impact the goals social movements seek to achieve and the tactics they use to get there? How does foreign funding impact a social movement’s ability to mobilize the masses? And what should external funders consider when supporting social movements? USIP’s Davin O’Regan discusses the finding of a forthcoming USIP Peaceworks examining the impact of external support to social movements focused on transparency and accountability.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Nonviolent Action

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