Understanding Nonviolence
Steve Whiting recommends an illuminating new book
In 2006 Erica Chenoweth, of Denver University, spent a week at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). She was sceptical about the power and potential of nonviolence. She had, like most people, internalised the idea that ultimate power flows from the barrel of a gun.
Her open scepticism did not make her the most popular person on the ICNC course and a colleague, Maria Stephan, challenged her: ‘If you’re right, why don’t you prove it? Are you curious enough to study this empirically?’ Erica was curious and, together with Maria, published in 2011 ground-breaking research, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, which analysed both violent and nonviolent uprisings across the world from 1900 to 2006.
Erica confesses that she was ‘blown away’ by the findings: nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely as violent campaigns to succeed outright, even against the most brutal and cunning opponents. They are also more likely to emerge with lasting democratic credentials. And the trend is increasing.
Understanding Nonviolence, edited by Maia Carter Hallward and Julie M Norman, is one of many books published in the wake of the Chenoweth-Stephan research. With contributions from a dozen practitioners and academics, it offers a very good introduction to the field, from an initial overview, through what the editors call the ‘contours’ of nonviolence, or fundamental frameworks and crosscutting themes, to the different contexts for the study of nonviolence, using case studies.
Inclusivity is the key to the success of nonviolence. Everybody can make a contribution. Principled nonviolence, of groups like Quakers, is seen as relating to individual worldviews and belief systems. This may lead to active nonviolent resistance, or indeed nonresistance, and is distinct from the pragmatic nonviolence of others involved in mass resistance movements. Many of those in the struggle for Indian independence or civil rights in the US may not have shared the principled nonviolence of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King. As the American Quaker writer and activist George Lakey says: ‘most pacifists do not practice nonviolent resistance, and most people who do practice nonviolent resistance are not pacifists’.
It’s mainly the case studies in this book that have stayed with me. Theories of nonviolent change are drawn from, or existing theories applied to, movements in Western Sahara, South Africa, US civil rights and United Farm Workers movements, Serbia, Ukraine, Brazil, Chile, Kosovo, the Arab Spring and many more. A section by Amanda D Clark and Patrick G Coy describes the Nashville student sit-ins during the US civil rights campaign in terms of the conflict progression model developed by our Friend Adam Curle, partly from his work in African and Asian liberation conflicts. Curle’s model looks at the progression from education about an injustice, through confrontation and nonviolent action, negotiation and mediation to sustainable peace within a matrix of balanced and unbalanced power, low and high awareness of conflict and peaceful/unpeaceful relations. It fits. From this we learn about the vital importance of strategic planning, preparation and nonviolence training necessary for a successful campaign.
An interesting section on ‘new media and advocacy’ explores recent developments in digital activism and ‘clicktivism’. They identify powerful new opportunities for creative action, lateral sharing, and organising less hierarchical, and more flexible and resilient movements – whilst cautioning about limitations and acknowledging that oppressive forces also have these tools. With the emergence of transnational people’s movements and a global civil society, Understanding Nonviolence closes with an optimistic look ahead: ‘The field of nonviolence will continue to develop and expand as civil resistance continues to be recognised and documented.’
After her research Erica Chenoweth asked: ‘Why was it so easy and comfortable to believe that violence works?’ She now urges us to encourage our children to learn more about the nonviolence legacies of the past 200 years and to explore the potential of people power. This book is a very good place to start.
Understanding Nonviolence by Maia Carter Hallward and Julie M Norman, Polity Press, ISBN: 9780745680170, £17.99.
