Publications > Nonviolent Action

Nonviolent Action

Introductory

	IMPORTANT NOTE: We have many translated publications that are not listed on this page. To find our translated publications, please visit the Translations section of our web site or click on one of the following languages: Arabic, Azeri, Belarusian, Burmese, Burma (Chin), Burma (Jing-paw), Burma (Karen), Burma (Mon), Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, English, Estonian, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Thai, Tibetan, Ukrainian
	There Are Realistic Alternatives by Gene Sharp There Are Realistic Alternatives is a short, serious introduction to nonviolent struggle, its applications, and strategic thinking. Based on pragmatic arguments, this piece presents nonviolent struggle as a realistic alternative to war and other violence in acute conflicts. It also contains a glossary of important terms and recommendations for further reading. For more information click here. 54 pp. 2003 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English, Arabic Download PDF file
	198 Methods of Nonviolent Action Practitioners of nonviolent struggle have an entire arsenal of "nonviolent weapons" at their disposal. Listed are 198 of them, classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention. Languages available: English Download PDF file
	Correcting Common Misconceptions About Nonviolent Struggle A handout sheet addressing common misconceptions about nonviolent action and answering some frequently asked questions. Languages available: English Download PDF file

Short Publications

	Self Liberation, A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression by Gene Sharp, with the assistance of Jamila Raqib This strategic planning guide is intended to assist people who wish themselves to plan a grand strategy, or super plan, to achieve their liberation from oppression and to build a more free and democratic system. This document is not only relevant to people facing internal dictatorships. It is also meant to be useful to people facing any kind of oppression. This short document cannot include adequate in-depth presentations of all the knowledge and ideas needed for strategic planning of a nonviolent struggle for liberation. Therefore, interspersed in this text are references to selected published readings covering those important topics. Careful study of these selected readings, available for download below, in the sequence recommended is essential. They contain much of the understandings, knowledge, and insights that may be useful in the preparation of strategies of liberation. For more information click here. Languages available: English
	On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking About the Fundamentals by Robert Helvey On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict delves into the question of how to build a strategy for nonviolent struggle. Covering a variety of topics--such as ways to identify a movement's objectives, preparing a strategic estimate for a nonviolent struggle, and operational planning considerations--this publication contains insights on the similarities between military and nonviolent strategy. It represents a major new contribution to this field of study. Additional topics covered in the book include psychological operations and propaganda, contaminants that may affect the efficiency of a nonviolent movement, and providing consultations and training for members of movements and organizations. For more information click here. 178 pp. 2004 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English Download PDF file
	From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp From Dictatorship to Democracy is a serious introduction to the use of nonviolent action to topple dictatorships. Originally published in 1993 in Thailand for distribution among Burmese dissidents, this booklet has since been translated into seventeen different languages and spread worldwide. This is the third US edition. For more information click here. 88 pp. 2003 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: Afan Oromo, Amharic, Arabic, Azeri, Belarusian, Burmese, Chin (Burma), Jing-paw (Burma), Karen (Burma), Mon (Burma), Chinese (Simplified Mandarin), Chinese (Traditional Mandarin), Dari, Dhivehi (Maldivian), English, Farsi, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Khmer (Cambodia), Kyrgyz, Pashto, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Tibetan, Tigrigna, Vietnamese Download PDF file
	The Anti-Coup by Gene Sharp and Bruce Jenkins As coups are one of the primary ways through which dictatorships are installed, this piece details measures that civilians, civil society, and governments can take to prevent and block coups d'état and executive usurpations. It also contains specific legislative steps and other measures that governments and non-governmental institutions can follow to prepare for anti-coup resistance. For more information click here. 64 pp. 2003 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English Download PDF file
	The Role of Power in Nonviolent Struggle Einstein Institution Monograph Series #3 by Gene Sharp "Nonviolent action . . . is capable of wielding great power even against ruthless rulers and military regimes," writes Sharp, "because it attacks the most vulnerable characteristic of all hierarchical institutions and governments: dependence on the governed." Abstracted from Sharp's classic three-volume work, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, this monograph summarizes the core concepts behind the technique of nonviolent struggle. For more information click here. 19 pp. 1990, 1994 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English, Arabic, Burmese, Russian, Spanish Download PDF file
	Self-Reliant Defense without Bankruptcy or War by Gene Sharp In this booklet, Sharp discusses the potential of civilian-based defense for the Baltics, East Central Europe, and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. For more information click here. 72 pp. 1992 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian Download PDF file
	National Security Through Civilian-based Defense by Gene Sharp This publication offers an introduction to civilian-based defense. It also identifies significant research areas and policy studies that are relevant to advancing the field. For more information click here. 93 pp. 1985 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English Download PDF file
	Making the Abolition of War a Realistic Goal by Gene Sharp This popular essay, first published in 1980, provides a brief introduction to civilian-based defense, a policy in which civilians are prepared to use nonviolent resistance as a means of national defense. Previously published by the World Policy Institute. For more information click here. 14 pp. 1980, 1990 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English, Dutch, French, Japanese Download PDF file
	Civilian-Based Defense in a New Era (Einstein Institution Monograph Series #2) by Johan Jørgen Holst In the wake of the peaceful revolutions of Eastern Europe in 1989, Johan Holst outlines the key criteria and parameters of a future security order in Europe and explores the potential of nonviolent civilian-based defense as a complement to traditional military forms of defense. Mr. Holst, who died in 1994, was the foreign minister of Norway, and former director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in Oslo. For more information click here. 22 pp. 1990 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English Download PDF file
	Toward Research and Theory Building in the Study of Nonviolent Action (Einstein Institution Monograph Series #7) by Ronald McCarthy and Christopher Kruegler The authors offer their thoughts about developing theory and conducting research in the emerging field of nonviolent action. For more information click here. 35 pp. 1993 You may order or download this publication. Languages available: English Download PDF file

Books

	Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential by Gene Sharp This groundbreaking new book builds on fifty years of Dr. Sharp’s academic research and practical experience working with nonviolent struggle movements around the world. In particular, Waging Nonviolent Struggle provides a theoretical framework for understanding this technique of action as well as unprecedented information about how nonviolent struggle can be strategically planned. It also contains twenty-three case accounts of how nonviolent struggle has been used in the twentieth century. 598 pp. 2005 For more information click here. You can also read advance praise for this book. TO ORDER: Contact Extending Horizons Books customer service center at: 400 Bedford St., Suite SW03 Manchester, NH 03101 USA Tel: USA + 1-603-669-7945 (worldwide) Fax: USA + 1-603-669-7945 E-mail: larry@flyleafpublishing.com Web site: Extending Horizons Books Languages available: English
	The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp A major exploration of nonviolent struggle in three volumes: Power and Struggle, The Methods of Nonviolent Action, The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action. For more information click here. TO ORDER: Contact Extending Horizons Books customer service center at: 400 Bedford St., Suite SW03 Manchester, NH 03101 USA Tel: USA + 1-603-669-7945 (worldwide) Fax: USA + 1-603-669-7945 E-mail: larry@flyleafpublishing.com Web site: Extending Horizons Books Languages available: English, Italian, Tamil
	A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall A gripping narrative of history-changing conflicts, this book tells how popular movements have used nonviolent weapons to overthrow dictators, obstruct military invaders, and secure human rights in country after country over the past century. For more information, see the companion film A Force More Powerful. For more information about the book click here. "These are powerful stories.... Nonviolent valor can end oppression, and the world of the 21st century will be safer, freer, and more humane if it heeds the lessons of this book."—Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States TO ORDER: Call USA + 1-800-221-7945 ext. 270 or visit www.palgrave-usa.com. Languages available: English
	Civilian-Based Defense: A Post-Military Weapons System by Gene Sharp A major exposition of the concept of organized nonviolent civilian resistance against attempted coups d'état and foreign occupations. For more information click here. TO ORDER: Please contact us for more information Languages available: English, Chinese, Dutch, Estonian, French, Hebrew, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian Download PDF file
	Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: The Dynamics of People Power in the Twentieth Century by Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler This work sets a new standard for studies of strategy in nonviolent struggle, analyzing six key historical cases through the lens of twelve strategic principles. "Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler have brought up-to-date the best thinking on strategic nonviolence...."—Thomas Schelling For more information click here. TO ORDER: Call USA + 1-800-225-5800 or 1-203-226-3571 or visit www.greenwood.com Languages available: English
	Making Europe Unconquerable: The Potential of Civilian-based Deterrence and Defense by Gene Sharp This book sketches the main characteristics of the policy of civilian-based defense, and outlines its relevance for Western European countries in the 1980s. For more information click here. TO ORDER: Please contact us for more information Languages available: English, Italian, Dutch
	Gandhi as a Political Strategist by Gene Sharp "Previous works have tended to concentrate on Gandhi's personal morality in a kind of 'great man' interpretation of India's successful struggle for independence.... But Professor Sharp makes clear once and for all that the driving force in the movement for Indian independence was Gandhi's creative synthesis of India's cultural and historical traditions with a unique interpretation of the principle of militant, nonviolent resistance to all forms of institutional evil." —Coretta Scott King For more information click here. TO ORDER: Contact Extending Horizons Books customer service center at: 400 Bedford St., Suite SW03 Manchester, NH 03101 USA Tel: USA + 1-603-669-7945 (worldwide) Fax: USA + 1-603-669-7945 E-mail: larry@flyleafpublishing.com Web site: Extending Horizons Books Languages available: English
	Social Power and Political Freedom by Gene Sharp Sharp's "works...present nonviolent political action...in such a way that even the most hardened realist can see how objectives sought by nations through war can also be sought by nonviolent means. The case...rests on history, and on a profound understanding of what constitutes political power." —Former U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield For more information click here. TO ORDER: Contact Extending Horizons Books customer service center at: 400 Bedford St., Suite SW03 Manchester, NH 03101 USA Tel: USA + 1-603-669-7945 (worldwide) Fax: USA + 1-603-669-7945 E-mail: larry@flyleafpublishing.com Web site: Extending Horizons Books Languages available: English
	Eyes Without Country: Searching for a Palestinian Strategy of Liberation by Souad Dajani Dajani's "discussion of the Intifada is remarkable for its balance and breadth. Her thorough investigation of nonviolent civil resistance as a Palestinian strategy defines a vital approach....This book should be read by anyone interested in the Middle East or in civil disobedience." —Jamal R. Nassar For more information click here. TO ORDER: Call USA + 1-800-621-2736 or (733) 568-1550 or visit http://www.temple.edu/tempress/ Languages available: English
	Nonviolent Action: A Research Guide by Ronald M. McCarthy and Gene Sharp A 700-page annotated bibliography of English-language books concerning cases, history, methods, and theory of nonviolent action. The work includes Dr. McCarthy's insightful introduction on "The Possibilities of Research on Nonviolent Action." For more information click here. TO ORDER: Call Garland Publishers, USA + 1-800-821-8312 or USA + 1-212-751-7447 Languages available: English

Films

A Force More Powerful A Force More Powerful is a two-part documentary series on one of the 20th century's most imporatnat and least-known stories—how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule. Drawing on six case studies from the twentieth century, this film is the story of millions who chose to battle the forces of brutality with nonviolent weapsons—and won. Also, see the companion book A Force More Powerful. For more information about the film click here. TO ORDER: For an English version, please visit www.films.com For translated versions, please contact www.yorkzim.com Languages available: English, Arabic, Farsi, French, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish

Bringing Down a Dictator Bringing Down a Dictator is the story of how nonviolent action was used to bring down Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in the year 2000. Led by the Otpor! (Serbian for "resistance") student movement, Serbs nonviolently resisted the Milosevic regime and caused it to topple in October 2000. For more information about the film click here. TO ORDER: For an English version, please contact www.films.com For translated versions, please contact www.yorkzim.com Languages available: English, Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish