Civil Resistance Research Articles

Micoahumado, Tarso and Mogotes: From the non violent civil resistance to the construction of territorial peace in Colombia

Este artículo reivindica el valor epistemológico y político de tres procesos comunitarios gestados en el seno del conflicto armado colombiano, que son ejercicios de resistencia civil no violenta al involucrar actores civiles colectivos que utilizaron medios pacíficos para responder a las afectaciones generadas por los actores armados y a las condiciones injustas de exclusión a las que habían sido sometidas a causa de la ausencia o indiferencia del Estado. En esas condiciones de vulnerabilidad, las comunidades de Micoahumado (Bolívar), Mogotes (Santander) y Tarso (Antioquia) negociaron con los grupos armados garantías de seguridad y exigieron a las autoridades el cumplimiento de sus funciones esenciales apersonándose de la planificación del desarrollo territorial, fortaleciendo los lazos de solidaridad y fomentando una cultura de paz.

Ma, Ngok & Edmund W.Cheng (eds). The Umbrella Movement: civil resistance and contentious space in Hong Kong. 355 pp., figs, tables, illus., bibliogrs. Amsterdam: Univ. Press, 2019. £117.00 (cloth)

Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteVolume 29, Issue 2 p. 476-477 Book and film reviews Ngok Ma & Edmund W. Cheng (eds). The Umbrella Movement: civil resistance and contentious space in Hong Kong. 355 pp., figs, tables, illus., bibliogrs. Amsterdam: Univ. Press, 2019. £117.00 (cloth) Gordon Mathews, Gordon Mathews The Chinese University of Hong KongSearch for more papers by this author Gordon Mathews, Gordon Mathews The Chinese University of Hong KongSearch for more papers by this author First published: 10 May 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13937Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume29, Issue2June 2023Pages 476-477 RelatedInformation

The democratizing qualities of the Palestinian village Bil’in’s civil resistance campaign

ABSTRACT This paper deals with the quality of civil resistance and, in particular, the democratizing qualities of various civil resistance practices. There is a great amount of research on civil resistance and its capacities to foster social change, and in particular its impact on increased democracy. However, we still have an empirical bias in this research since these studies mainly focus on mass-mobilized breaking resistance. This paper provides an analysis of various civil resistance practices’ democratizing qualities based on a case study – namely the Palestinian village Bil’in’s campaign against the Israeli plans to build a ‘security barrier’‚ through the village’s farmlands. The process of the campaign began in 2002 and lasted until the Supreme Court of Israel’s decision from 2007 to re-route the building of the ‘security barrier’ away from the farmland from was implemented in 2011. Based on a ‘process tracing’ (PT) methodology, an analysis of, primarily, interviews that were made with Bil’in activists and proxy activists (mainly Israelis) is presented, where the tracing underlying mechanisms could explain why the campaign had an impact on democracy. Theoretically, the paper applies the concept of ‘democratizing qualities’ (Munck 2016), as well as the analytical toolbox that is labelled the ABC of civil resistance. The paper will conclude with a presentation of potential causal mechanisms that may explain why the civil resistance campaign impacted on democracy. The guiding overarching research question is: In what ways can different practices of civil resistance have democratizing qualities?

¡Basta Ya! The Basque Civic Movement and Nonviolent Resistance to eta’s Terrorism

Abstract This paper examines the impact that the Basque civic movement had in the civil resistance against the armed separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (eta). The ‘civic’ or ‘constitutionalist’ movement, whose best-known representative was the social movement organization ¡Basta Ya!, emerged to demand the protection of Basque citizens’ human and political rights, which were routinely abused by eta and their sympathisers. The movement impacted on the cycle of contention against terrorism through the diffusion of democratic norms and anti-eta political narratives, by sustaining civil resistance against terrorism while enduring persecution by their militants and sympathisers and by protecting the social fabric through the channelling of non-nationalist grievances into collective action that was pro-democratic and nonviolent. The case highlights the crucial parallels that exist between civil resistance to authoritarian regimes and non-state groups and the crucial role that civil society actors can play in the social delegitimisation of terrorist organisations.

Contesting spaces and civil resistance movements: A case study on India’s #FeeMustFall movement

The paper intends to conduct a spatial reading of civil resistance movements taking Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) #FeeMustFall in India as the case study. Amidst the penetration of neoliberal politics in public goods like health and education, the pay-per-user principle is not limited to the argument of efficiency of allocation of resources. It can be comprehended as the larger strategy of the ruling dispensation to deplatform dissent and homogenise state space on an ideological singularity catering to majoritarian and hegemonic nationalism. The paper shall focus on the spatial reading of civil resistance movements using Lefebvre’s characterisation of state space and Gramsci’s understanding of hegemony and nationalism in the context of JNU’s #FeeMustFall movement.

The expansion of «digital» as a means of achieving success in military confrontations and civil activism in modern times

The realities of modern digital technologies in the cross-media global information environment are one of the most relevant topics of today. In light of recent military conflicts, our article attempts to identify and describe the most important aspects of digitization through the prism of contemporary military confrontations, including the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and global manifestations of civil activism. The study focuses on specific developments and innovations that demonstrate the impact of digitalization trends on Ukrainian resistance to aggression, as well as the course of other global military conflicts and civil resistance actions. To this end, technologies related to the tools used in the enemy’s resistance strategy are examined, including cutting-edge systems for information content production, search, acquisition, and processing, as well as analysis, verification, and visualization. Innovative digital developments for successful military operations, reliable defense capabilities during times of conflict, and digital communication tools and means that ensure human safety in such conditions are described. The level of reflection of the aforementioned aspects in the works of domestic and foreign researchers is demonstrated.

The Power and Value of Strategic Nonviolent Action

Abstract Recent decades have underscored the power of strategic nonviolent action, even in the most challenging of circumstances. The majority of transitions to democracy have been due to civil society groups engaged in nonviolent resistance, data from political scientists has demonstrated it being far more effective than armed struggle, coups have been reversed, and foreign occupations have been weakened, thereby challenging the rationale for armed liberation struggles. Similarly, problems with “humanitarian intervention” have raised questions regarding the need for “the responsibility to protect” through military means. The traditional rationales for militarism are therefore becoming harder and harder to defend. This provides an opening for those of us in the field to disseminate information about the history and dynamics of unarmed civil resistance. Regardless of whether one embraces pacifism as a personal principle, it is critical to understand and teach about nonviolent alternatives.

Response to Corinna Jentzsch’s Review of Between Mao and Gandhi: The Social Roots of Civil Resistance

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Between Mao and Gandhi: The Social Roots of Civil Resistance. By Ches Thurber. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 260p. $99.99 cloth.

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Márgenes en lucha por la centralidad. Electricidad y cosmovisiones indígenas en un movimiento de resistencia civil mexicano

El articulo examina el caso etnográfico de la Organización de la Resistencia Civil Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo, situada en Chiapas, en el sureste de México. Se trata de un movimiento social cuyos integrantes son mayoritariamente indígenas y campesinos, y cuya lucha es por el acceso universal y no discriminatorio a la energía eléctrica. Pero, al mismo tiempo, hace de la electricidad el instrumento de un combate más amplio por la autonomía y por afirmar una visión del mundo alternativa a la de la modernidad capitalista. En la primera parte, el texto traza las características de la condición de marginación en la que viven los grupos indígenas mexicanos y propone un recuento de las políticas indigenistas que el Estado mexicano ha implementado con el objetivo de asimilar a su población indígena. A continuación, reconstruye la progresiva afirmación de las reivindicaciones autonómicas entre los movimientos de base mexicanos, destacando cómo el paradigma indigenista les ha "involuntariamente" propiciado. Finalmente, tras ilustrar la génesis y funcionamiento de Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo, analiza las formas de autonomía que produce, destacando la aportación ontológica que les proporcionan las cosmovisiones de origen maya.

Suspect resistance, police use of force, and officer injuries in a post-Floyd era: an analysis of two large police departments

ABSTRACT While the events following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, undoubtedly brought about anti-police sentiment, the death of George Floyd may have brought about even greater hostility towards police. Utilizing data from two large police departments, we test whether there were significant increases in the incidence of civilian resistance, Black civilian resistance, use of force, and officer injuries. Estimation of multiple interrupted time-series models revealed that except for officer injuries in one agency, all outcomes significantly increased post-Floyd. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

The Political Origins of De Facto States: Searching for Explanation Models

Interview with Laurence Broers Laurence Broers is the South Caucasus Programme Director at the peacebuilding organization Conciliation Resources. He has more than 20 years’ experience as a scholar of con fl icts in the South Caucasus and practitioner of e ff orts directed at their peaceful resolution. He is the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of Caucasus Survey , the fi rst scholarly journal dedicated to the Caucasus region, published by Brill. He is the author of Armenia and Azerbaijan: Anatomy of a Rivalry (Edinburgh University Press, 2019) and co-editor, with Galina Yemelianova, of the Routledge Handbook of the Caucasus (Routledge 2020) and, with Anna Ohanyan, of Armenia’s Velvet Revolution: Authoritarian Decline and Civil Resistance in a Multipolar World (I.B. Tauris, 2020).

When do civilians resist military coup attempts?

When do ordinary civilians mobilise to resist military coup attempts? Existing literature based largely on single case studies puts forward three variables: political culture, popular support for the government, and material (economic) dependency between the government and its supporters. Finding these explanations insufficient, we first utilise existing military coup data sets and identify the universe of cases of civilian resistance (19) to military coups. Taking our next cue from social movement and mobilisation studies, we focus on mobilisation networks and leadership as possible causal conditions. We also follow the approach of searching for the causes-of-effects, working backward from the outcome of interest (civilian resistance) to look for additional causal conditions. A comparative analysis of eight positive (civilian resistance) cases shows that collective yearning for change, transformative leadership, resistance by the leadership and robust mobilisation power in the state capital and largest cities may together carry more explanatory power. Validation of evidence provided by six negative (no civilian resistance) cases indicates that while a collective desire for change and transformative leadership may set the stage for resistance, it is ‘mobilisation power’ and ‘leadership resistance’ that exert more impact on the causal process of emergence of civilian resistance to military coups d’état.

Upping the ante without taking up arms: Why mass movements escalate demands

One of the unresolved puzzles in the civil resistance and contentious politics literatures is why some movements that begin seeking limited redress in a certain policy space escalate their claims to demand the ousting of a national leader or the entire regime, a process the article terms ‘demand escalation’. For instance, in the summer of 2019, thousands took to the streets of Hong Kong to protest about a proposed extradition bill that would allow criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China to face trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party. However, even after Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, announced the formal withdrawal of the controversial bill, protests continued with some calling for greater democracy and others demanding Lam’s resignation. Whereas most of the literature on civil resistance treats demands as fixed and focuses on different methods of struggle to pursue predefined ends, this article shows that demands can change as a result of the state–dissent interaction. The article argues that movements are more likely to escalate their demands when the state responds to the initial nonviolent action with a disproportionate use of force, because such an action intensifies the grievances the protesters have against the state and betrays the remaining trust that people might have had in the government. The analysis of a new quantitative dataset that catalogues both reformist and maximalist opposition campaigns globally supports this claim. By incorporating non-maximalist campaigns into the analysis and not treating demands as fixed, this article adds to our understanding of mass campaigns and highlights an overlooked means by which nonviolent campaigns can up their ante without resorting to violence.

In Defence of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana: Delimiting the Boundaries of the Right to Civil Resistance in the Face of Treason

In Defence of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana: Delimiting the Boundaries of the Right to Civil Resistance in the Face of Treason

Guest Editors’ introduction: Nonviolent resistance and its discontents

In the past decade, myriad studies have explored the effects of nonviolent resistance (NR) on outcomes including revolutionary success (short-term and long-term) and democratization, and how nonviolent mobilization can play a similar role to violence in affecting social change in some settings. This special issue seeks to advance our understanding of the role of nonviolence by tackling some key assumptions in existing work that are complicated by historical and contemporary realities of deepening polarization worldwide. This issue addresses four key areas within conflict and peace research that limit our ability to make sense of NR: (a) the fragmented nature of civil resistance campaigns in terms of supporters and demands; (b) the increasing prevalence of authoritarian or anti-egalitarian nonviolent campaigns; and (c) the complicated nature of revolutionary success. Cutting across all three of these substantive areas is another key area, which is: (d) the United States as an increasingly salient site of conflict and contention.

Pushing the doors open: Nonviolent action and inclusion in peace negotiations

Whereas previous research shows that peace agreements which include a broad segment of society are more likely to lead to sustainable peace, little effort has gone into explaining inclusion itself. We address this gap in the literature by providing the first large-N study to examine the causes of inclusive peace negotiations across civil wars. We argue that civil society actors can gain leverage through mobilization of civilian protest, or build trust through dialogue efforts, thereby enhancing the chances of inclusion of non-warring actors at the negotiation table. The argument is examined by analysing unique and new monthly data on peacemaking efforts in all intrastate armed conflicts in Africa and the Americas, 1989–2018, including measures beyond mere nominal participation, such as whether civil society actors or political parties had substantive roles as either mediators or full participants at the peace talks. Our findings show that protests by civil society actors increase the likelihood that non-warring actors will have a seat at the negotiation table, whereas we find no such effect concerning dialogue efforts. The article contributes by providing new insights into how nonviolent action can shape peace processes by opening the doors to negotiations and is thus part of an emerging research agenda that seeks to bring together the fields of civil resistance and inclusive peace processes.

The role of protests on the journey to a politics without violence

This article explores the relationship between protest, violence and the possibility of a politics without violence. It argues that protest is not only a valid but also a necessary vehicle for the journey towards a politics without violence. Nevertheless, violence can emerge within protests as well as in response to them. The article will propose a thinking tool for understanding violence as a phenomenon with multiple expressions. It discusses movements to de-sanction violence and the research that has highlighted the role of non-violent protest, constructive nonviolent action and civil resistance in the history of social change. It will reflect on recent data bases which record the rise in protests in recent years and the role of violence within them. Finally, it will take the social protests in Chile and Colombia in 2019 and 2021, where although violence erupted mainly as vandalism and looting, with severe violent police responses, both protests, we argue, contributed to delineating a politics without violence through generating intermediation channels between the demands of the street and the institutional mechanisms for processing social change.
 Received: 07 August 2022 Accepted: 28 November 2022

A Historical Approach towards Baloch-British Contact: An analysis of Baloch Wars with the Colonial forces (1839-41)

Balochistan, due to its strategic position, has faced a myriad of invaders such as Persians, Mughals and finally the British. British contact with Kalat was initially established in the late eighteenth century by British travelers, who were sent by the British Indian Government to gather ample information about Balochistan. By1830’s the British in India were eager to expand their borders into central Asia. Therefore, the British embarked on a strategy to install friendly governments in their northwest frontier that would provide a buffer zone to protect their Indian Empire from foreign enemies. Balochistan, lying at the frontier of British India, came under British consideration. In 1838; British Empire in India anticipated establishing relation with the state of Kalat in Balochistan. Finally, British concluded a treaty with Mehrab Khan subsequently, the ruler of Balochistan during the first Anglo-Afghan war for safe passage through its territory. In contrary, British army faced much resistance and trouble while advancing towards Afghanistan. This created anger among the British policy makers resultantly, Kalat was assaulted. Throughout Balochistan occupation of Kalat created civil resistance on an unpredicted and unprecedented scale. They revolted against British interference and fought against them, which resulted in their submission to the rule of Nasir Khan II. This paper is an attempt to continue the history of the British contact with Baloch and the events of the war which occurred betwixt 1839 to 1841.

Civil Resistance from the End of the Cold War to the 21st Century: A Historical Perspective

Civil resistance made a significant contribution to the largely peaceful end of the Cold War and has become an increasingly important factor of post-Cold War international politics. This essay proposes a historical reflection of civil resistance from the end of the Cold War to the present, in relation to some crucial issues on the contemporary international scenario. Taking 1989 as the starting point, the main aim of this study is to explore the legacy of the “Long 1989” in the evolution of civil resistance. The essay focuses on three main issues: i) the rise and decline of the post-1989 liberal cycle of civil resistance in Europe; ii) the consequences of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the emergence of a new Chinese authoritarian state capitalism; and iii) the impact of the technological and digital revolution on post-1989 civil resistance.