RPP Colloquium: Why Nonviolent Civil Resistance Works

This session of the fourth annual RPP Colloquium Series explores some of the key challenges that nonviolent resistance movements face, including obstacles to building and maintaining movement cohesion, ensuring effective communication, and gaining political leverage; how advocates of principled nonviolence (who promote nonviolence on a moral basis) often clash with advocates of civil resistance (who promote nonviolent action on a strategic or utilitarian basis); the ongoing debate on diversity of tactics; and the ways in which power and privilege undermine solidarity. The colloquium highlights the power of women in these movements and addresses ways in which spiritually-engaged communities are well-positioned to address many of these key movement challenges. It features Erica Chenoweth, PhD, Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver and Fellow, One Earth Future Foundation; and moderator and respondent Jocelyne Cesari, PhD, Professor and Chair of Religion and Politics at the University of Birmingham, UK, Senior Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center on Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Professorial Fellow at the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Society at the Australian Catholic University, and Visiting Professor of Religion and Politics at Harvard Divinity School. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.