Negotiating Civil Resistance

Negotiating Civil Resistance

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

By: Anthony Wanis-St. John ;  Noah Rosen

Reviewing the literature on negotiation and civil resistance, this report examines the current divide between the two and digs deeper to identify the fundamental convergences. It builds on these findings to illustrate why negotiations and negotiation concepts are essential to the success of civil resistance campaigns. Using historical examples, it then examines the dynamics of negotiation in the context of these strategic domains. 

Type: Peaceworks

Nonviolent ActionMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

Women in Nonviolent Movements

Women in Nonviolent Movements

Thursday, December 29, 2016

By: Marie A. Principe

Women’s meaningful involvement in civil resistance movements has shown to be a game changer. Examining movements in Argentina, Chile, Egypt, Liberia, the Palestinian territories, Poland, Syria, and the United States, this report advocates for the full engagement of women and their networks in nonviolent movements for a simple and compelling reason—because greater female inclusion leads to more sustainable peace. 

Type: Special Report

GenderNonviolent Action

How Women Drive Nonviolent Movements for Change

How Women Drive Nonviolent Movements for Change

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

By: Fred Strasser

In 2004, when Iraqi political and religious leaders tried to roll back a longstanding law asserting broad rights for women, thousands of Iraqi women mobilized to defend it and to enshrine their rights in the constitution. They marched, wrote protest letters and lobbied the U.S.-led coalition then ruling the country. Carla Koppell, then with the Institute for Inclusive Security, suggested to political analysts evaluating Iraq’s spreading insurgencies that the women’s campaign was a type of activism that U.S. policy should support. But the analysts were dismissive, Koppell recalled in a discussion last week at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “They said, ‘Oh, that’s just women who haven’t taken up arms yet,’” Koppell said. “Yeah. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it? And women were the majority of the country.”

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGenderNonviolent Action

Regional Security through Inclusive Reform in the Maghreb and the Sahel

Regional Security through Inclusive Reform in the Maghreb and the Sahel

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

By: Querine Hanlon;  Joyce A. Kasee

Throughout the Maghreb and the Sahel, governments are struggling to manage a security environment fundamentally transformed by the Arab Spring. Within this region, the efforts of governments to secure their territories and civil society organizations to create accountable and transparent security institutions have proceeded almost wholly divorced from each other. This Peace Brief shares key insights from the engagement between official and civil society actors both within and across borders t...

Type: Peace Brief

Justice, Security & Rule of LawDemocracy & Governance

From Conflict in the Streets to Peace in the Society

From Conflict in the Streets to Peace in the Society

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

By: James Rupert

From Hong Kong’s boulevards and Nairobi’s Uhuru Park to the maidans of Kyiv, Cairo and Tunis, millions of people have massed in recent years to demand greater democracy and transparency from their governments. Dozens of similar campaigns have been fought more quietly. A quarter-century of worldwide growth in such non-violent civil resistance movements has sharpened a question both for their activists and for practitioners of traditional peacebuilding: How can such resistance movements and conflict-resolution work be combined to build more stable, democratic societies?

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionNonviolent Action

Managing Conflict in a World Adrift

Managing Conflict in a World Adrift

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

By: Pamela Aall;  Chester A. Crocker;  Fen Osler Hampson;  editors

In the midst of a political shift where power is moving from central institutions to smaller, more distributed units in the international system, the approaches to and methodologies for peacemaking are changing. "Managing Conflict in a World Adrift" provides a sobering panorama of contemporary conflict, along with innovative thinking about how to respond now that new forces and dynamics are at play.

Type: Book

Education & Training

Participatory and Inclusive Constitution-Making

Participatory and Inclusive Constitution-Making

Thursday, January 29, 2015

By: Jason Gluck;  Michele Brandt

In the wake of the Arab Spring, citizens across the Middle East and North Africa are demanding reforms from their governments. How these governments respond to their people and promote inclusive constitution-making processes may determine whether their new social compacts lead to a durable peace. This report draws from the work of scholars and constitution makers who have been exchanging ideas about how to ensure that modern constitutions incorporate the needs and aspirations of the citizens ...

Type: Peaceworks

Justice, Security & Rule of LawDemocracy & Governance

Music Plays Crucial Role in Non-Violent Civic Movements

Music Plays Crucial Role in Non-Violent Civic Movements

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

In Libya’s 2011 uprising, protesters pumped loud music from radios or CD players in the streets in front of government buildings, then fled from the inevitable rush of security forces. The nonviolent early days of Egypt’s revolution that same year spawned a raft of new independent music groups. In Turkey, the “Song of Pots and Pans” exhorts political leaders to stop their lies and repressive tactics.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention