How can movements build their effectiveness and win rights, freedom, and justice?

Our mission is educational. We develop and share knowledge and resources on civil resistance with interested recipients throughout the world. 

ICNC Moderated Online “People Power” Course

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Civil resistance is a social and political phenomenon that defies a long-held belief in the power of arms to challenge brutal, violent adversaries. Contrary to the dominant news narrative about endless civil wars and political violence, nonviolent resistance campaigns against repressive states have been on the rise in the last few decades, surpassing violent insurgencies by almost 5 to 1 in the last 15 years.

For the past several years, ICNC has supported work to develop unique datasets of nonviolent campaigns (NAVCO). In 2011, this work led to a ground-breaking quantitative study that showed that civil resistance movements often emerge and succeed in challenging environments. It also established that civil resistance struggles are more than twice as effective against violent states as armed resistance groups.

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During the course learners reflect on the skills and agency of ordinary people, their strategies and tactics, how to remain nonviolent and deal effectively with the presence of violent flanks, use the phenomenon of repression backfiring to movement advantage, and facilitate the process of defections. We look at how entrenched political and social structures and practices shift under the pressure of organized nonviolent movements, and the long-term impacts on societies, nations and institutions.

Finally, the course examines a variety of case studies of civil resistance struggles, including those whose objectives are not regime change but instead to challenge corruption, change policies, or counter abusive and violent non-state actors.
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Who Are Course Participants?

Close to 200 applicants apply to the course each year. We select between 40-60 participants to join the course. A standard cohort is usually very international and includes nationals from at least 25 countries, on average. Learners would have relevant professional experience and include activists, organizers, graduate students, educators, scholars, civil society leaders, journalists, and policy professionals.

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Inside the Course

The online course involves a number of activities to be completed within specified time frames, including forum posts, recorded webinars, readings, videos, webinar meetings and online discussions.

Experts in the field provide their insights and moderate various forums of the online class while live webinar events offer participants an opportunity to listen to and engage with other practitioners that bring experience of organizing, planning and waging civil resistance actions in different parts of the world.

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Courses

Check out our courses

Course Goals and Content

The main goals of the moderated online course have been:

• To introduce main concepts and ideas in civil resistance
• To discuss a variety of case studies of nonviolent campaigns and movements


• To reflect on the effectiveness of civil resistance and its power to overcome adverse conditions.
• To provide a platform for participant exchange and peer-to-peer learning

• To offer an interactive and structured learning environment for participants to become a more informed observer of nonviolent conflicts and effective conveyor of civil resistance knowledge.
Our team

Meet our team

Bruce Pearson

Program Manager

Bruce Pearson is Program Manager at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), where he supports online learning, fieldwork, fellowships, writing, and publishing on the use of civil resistance by movements to secure rights, freedom, and justice. With ICNC Press, he has coordinated the publication of twenty monographs, special reports, and resources for practitioners—for which fourteen he was volume editor. He is also the series editor for books in the Activist-Author Series. Bruce also manages the moderated and participant-led online courses and supports courses by ICNC partners and teaching fellows.

Ivan Marovic

Executive Director

Ivan Marovic is an educator, software developer and social innovator from Belgrade, Serbia. He was a student organizer and one of the leaders of Otpor ("Resistance"), a youth movement which played an important role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic, authoritarian leader of Serbia in 2000. Since then he's advised numerous pro-democracy groups around the world and became one of the leading trainers in the field of strategic nonviolent conflict.

Amber French

Senior Editorial Advisor and Managing Editor of Minds of the Movement

Amber French is ICNC Senior Editorial Advisor, Managing Editor of the Minds of the Movement blog (est. June 2017) and Project Co-Lead of REACT (Research-in-Action), the ICNC partnership with ActionAid Denmark focused on the power of activist writing. For the Minds of the Movement blog, she has commissioned 285+ articles by 130+ activist writers, academics and others around the world. Currently based in Paris, France, she continues to develop thought leadership on civil resistance in French.
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LET'S GET IN TOUCH

We are here to help

Have any questions? We'd love to hear from you.
  • academicinitiative@nonviolent-conflict.org
  • 600 New Hampshire Ave NW, Suite 1010 Washington, DC 20037