How the Catholic Church Can Bolster Alternatives to Violence

How the Catholic Church Can Bolster Alternatives to Violence

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

By: Maria J. Stephan

The Catholic Church, with its 2.1 billion adherents worldwide, has been pivotal in some of the most significant nonviolent struggles in modern history. Many will recall the iconic image of Filipino religious sisters confronting military forces and a kleptocratic dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in prayerful resistance during the 1986 “people power” revolution. Today, Filipino religious leaders, facing another violent dictator, Rodrigo Duterte, once again are the leading face of nonviolent resistance. The Vatican is discussing these and other examples of powerful nonviolent movements as it rethinks its long-held doctrine of “just war.”

Type: Analysis

ReligionNonviolent Action

Adopting a Movement Mindset to Address the Challenge of Fragility

Adopting a Movement Mindset to Address the Challenge of Fragility

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

The Fragility Study Group is an independent, non-partisan, effort of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for a New American Security and the United States Institute of Peace. The chair report of the study group, U.S. Leadership and the Challenge of State Fragility, was released on September 12. This brief is part of a series authored by scholars from the three institutions that build on the chair report to discuss the implications of fragility on existing U.S. tools, st...

Type: Report

Fragility & ResilienceNonviolent Action

Aid to Civil Society: A Movement Mindset

Aid to Civil Society: A Movement Mindset

Monday, February 23, 2015

By: Sadaf Lakhani;  Nadia Naviwala

Supporting local agents of nonviolent change is critical to preventing violent conflict and advancing democratic development. Civic campaigns are key drivers of social and political development, as is clear from issues-focused movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and most recently the Middle East and North Africa. Effectively aiding civic movements that are fluid, diverse, decentralized, and often loosely organized is tricky. Drawn from a review of the literature and numero...

Type: Special Report

Conflict Analysis & PreventionNonviolent Action

Using Technology in Nonviolent Activism against Repression

Using Technology in Nonviolent Activism against Repression

Thursday, January 8, 2015

By: Kelly McKone;  Noel Dickover

In an era of crackdowns on freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, what role can technology play in strengthening nonviolent civic mobilization? How can activists strategically apply the full range of technologies to build and sustain movements where the options for nonviolently resolving conflicts are diminishing under increased repression? Informed by discussions from a USIP workshop, this report explores avenues for engagement between activists and external actors to use technology ...

Type: Special Report

Violent ExtremismNonviolent Action

How the United Nations Can Harness 'People Power'

How the United Nations Can Harness 'People Power'

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

By: Tabatha Thompson;  Maria J. Stephan

The United Nations has declared a priority this year to unify and strengthen its work in building peace—and U.N. bodies will meet in the next two months to advance that change. U.N. leaders have acknowledged that a vital element in peacebuilding is nonviolent, grassroots movements. But as the United Nations aims to more efficiently promote peace, how prepared is it to actually work with them?

Type: Analysis

Nonviolent Action

To Defeat Terrorism, Use 'People Power'

To Defeat Terrorism, Use 'People Power'

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

By: Leanne Erdberg Steadman ;  Maria J. Stephan

As governments and communities seek the right combination of methods to halt terrorism, one that we too often miss is nonviolent resistance. It’s not that we haven’t seen the power of protest movements that use mass marches, sit-ins, boycotts and other forceful but nonviolent tactics. To the contrary, people worldwide have been moved by watching such movements sweep aside the walls of apartheid, the tanks of dictators or the impunity of kleptocracies...

Type: Analysis

Nonviolent ActionViolent Extremism