The History and
Strategies of Nonviolent Alternatives to War
Compleat
Scholar Class, Oct. 23 – Nov. 20, 2003
Thursdays, 7:00 – 9:00 PM, 1701 University Ave. Room 109
Taught by Michael Bischoff: michael@clarityfacilitation.com,
612-521-1889
Class web page: http://www.clarityfacilitation.com/compleat
Class Plans (Subject to change based on input from
participants):
Oct. 23
Introductions, Goals of the Class
Principles of Nonviolent Action (taken from India and Eastern European
nonviolent movements)
Notes from the lecture , Oct. 23
Suggested Readings:
Excerpts from The Unconquerable World, by
Jonathan Schell:
From the Nation: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030519&s=schell2
Another excerpt: http://www.henryholt.com/holt/unconquerableworldexcerpt.htm
Oct. 30
Stages of a Nonviolent Action Campaign
Methods of Nonviolent Action
Historical Case Study #1
Notes from the lecture, Oct. 30
Suggested Readings:
Sharp, Gene. “198 Methods of Nonviolent Action.”
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/resources/nonViolent198.htm
India, “Defying the Crown,” Background from A Force
More Powerful
http://www.pbs.org/weta/forcemorepowerful/denmark/
“Stages of Movement Development”, George Lakey
http://www.starhawk.org/activism/stages-strategy.html
Nov. 6
Draft of a letter about the strike, to be sent from people in our class
Limits and weaknesses of previous nonviolent action
campaigns
Historical Case Study #2
Suggested Readings:
Poland, “We’ve Caught God by the Arm,” Background from A Force More
Powerful
http://www.pbs.org/weta/forcemorepowerful/poland/
Nov. 13
Civilian Based Defense; Uses of Nonviolent Action for
Defense.
Role of the Media in Nonviolent Movements
Case Study #3 (current or historic)
Denmark, “Living With the Enemy,” Background from A Force More Powerful
http://www.pbs.org/weta/forcemorepowerful/denmark/
Serbia, “Bringing Down a Dictator”
http://www.pbs.org/weta/dictator/
Nov. 20
Application of the principles of nonviolent action to
contemporary conflicts
"Liberation Without War," Talk by Jack DuVall
Lederach, John Paul. “Reframing Terror from the Perspective of Conflict Resolution” http://www.emu.edu/ctp/bse-reframing.html
Additional Recommended Reading:
Peter Ackerman & Jack Duvall, A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict, New York: Palgrave Publishers, 2000. Companion volume to the 3-hour PBS series. Contains multiple in-depth historical case studies.
Schell, Jonathan. The Unconquerable World: Power,
Nonviolence and the Will of the People, New York: Metropolitan Books, 2003.
A synthesis of the principles of nonviolent movements across the world
put in the context of military and political history.
Examples of nonviolent movements in other countries (from
the official web site for “A Force More Powerful”):
http://www.pbs.org/weta/forcemorepowerful/other/
A more extensive bibliography of the history and strategy
of nonviolent action:
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/resources/resBooks.htm