Nonviolent campaigns usually take place in complex domestic and international settings, where support from outside actors can be a double-edged sword. We argue that nonviolent campaigns tend to benefit the most from external assistance that allows them to generate high participation, maintain nonviolent discipline, deter crackdowns, and elicit security force defections. But various forms of external assistance have mixed effects on the characteristics and outcomes of nonviolent campaigns. We use original qualitative and quantitative data to examine the ways that external assistance impacted the characteristics and success rates of post-2000 maximalist uprisings.
Among other findings, we argue that long-term investment in civil society and democratic institutions can strengthen the societal foundations for nonviolent movements; that activists who receive training prior to peak mobilization are much more likely to mobilize campaigns with high participation, low fatalities, and greater likelihood of defections; that donor coordination is important to be able to effectively support and leverage nonviolent campaigns; and that concurrent external support to armed groups tends to undermine nonviolent movements in numerous ways. Flexible donor assistance that supports safe spaces for campaign planning and relationship-building, and multilateral diplomatic pressure that mitigates regime repression can be particularly helpful for nonviolent campaigns.
A propos de l’auteur
Maria J. Stephan’s career has bridged the academic, policy, and non-profit sectors,with a focus on the role of civil resistance and nonviolent movements in advancing
human rights, democratic freedoms, and sustainable peace in the US and globally.
She most recently directed the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of
Peace, overseeing cutting-edge research and programming focused on the nexus
of nonviolent action and peacebuilding. Stephan is the co-author (with Erica Chenoweth)
of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict
(Columbia University Press, 2011). She is the co-author of Bolstering Democracy:
Lessons Learned and the Path Forward (Atlantic Council, 2018); the co-editor of
Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? (Atlantic Council, 2015); and the editor of Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization and Governance in the Middle East (Palgrave, 2009). From 2009-14, Stephan was lead foreign affairs officer in the U.S. State Department, serving in Afghanistan and Turkey. She later co-directed the Future of Authoritarianism initiative at the Atlantic Council. Stephan has taught at Georgetown University and American University. She received her BA from Boston College and her MA and Ph D from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Stephan, a native Vermonter, is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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