The Power and Promise of Nonviolent Action

media release: At a time when the world is reeling from the Russian assault on Ukraine and the bloody conflict in Israel-Palestine, the Madison-based Interfaith Peace Working Group, along with the UW-Madison's Center for Interfaith Dialogue and the UW Nonviolence Project, are initiating a year-long conversation on the power of nonviolence to achieve social justice and peace.

On November 15, these groups will host a talk by Dr. Maria Stephan, an author, activist and diplomat who focuses on the role civil resistance can play to counter injustice and oppressive regimes. Stephan has worked with the United States Institute of Peace, NATO and as lead foreign affairs office for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations of the U.S. Department of State. Currently she is the Chief Organizer for the Horizons Project, where she brokers key relationships, bridges research and practice, and convenes partnerships for collective action.

With Erica Chenoweth, she authored the book Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. The book tests the conventional wisdom that only violence works against formidable foes like dictators and foreign military occupations. The two writers studied 323 violent and nonviolent campaigns from 1900 to 2006.

“Erica and I found that nonviolent civil resistance was twice as successful as armed struggle, even against militarily superior opponents willing to use violence,” Stephan said. “We also found that nonviolent struggle helps consolidate democracy and civil peace.”

Stephan’s on-the-ground experience includes working with the Syrian opposition to the Assad regime and assisting a Russian human rights organization that focused on atrocities committed by Russian forces in Chechnya. She has written extensively about civil resistance, notably in the Middle East.

“The idea that picking up arms will hasten the pathway to victory is not born out by research,” she writes. “The most effective antidote to dictatorship is organized and disciplined nonviolent resistance, including mass non-cooperation.”