The study of unarmed civil insurrections has recently entered the mainstream of social science, as world events have led an increasing number of scholars to recognize the importance of the application of such nonconventional social action. Kurt Schock’s edited volume provides an excellent overview of some of the latest research findings and theoretical developments of the rapidly growing subfield of strategic nonviolent action.

This is probably the most ambitious effort to date at analyzing both the literature on civil resistance and the broader literature on social movements and revolution, including the important similarities between violent and nonviolent popular struggles, as well as the profound differences in dynamics and outcomes. By moving beyond the limitations of existing theory, Civil Resistance provides the basis for greater integration (or at least a dialectical synthesis) of the two traditions. The study of “people’s war” and “people power” have traditionally been treated separately in the literature, and so the comparative aspects are among the volume’s most important contributions, along with the broader social science analysis of civil resistance itself.

In contrast to centuries of study of violent resistance and war, serious study of the theory and dynamics of civil resistance has been around for only a few decades. As a result, as Schock notes in his introduction, much more needs to be done. While both phenomena require mobilization and cooperation of the affected population toward a common goal, the volume reinforces recent studies by Erica Chenoweth, Maria Stephan, and others, which suggest that nonviolent movements generally have a much higher chance of success, and with less destructive outcomes than armed resistance.

The volume is divided into two sections—the “Dynamics of Civil Resistance” and “Frontiers of Civil Resistance”—though there is certainly a fair amount of overlap. As with many edited volumes, this one is somewhat uneven and could be more focused, yet the 10 contributing authors—consisting of prominent figures in the subfield as well as younger scholars—present their research in a manner that should appeal to anyone interested in the study of civil resistance.

Julie Norman, utilizing framing theory from the social movement literature, addresses the question of why the first Palestinian intifada in the late 1980s (despite the iconic image of stone throwing) was overwhelmingly nonviolent, whereas the second intifada, in the early 2000s—while also including far more episodes of nonviolent resistance than usually acknowledged—was far more violent. She posits that one factor was the co-optation of the term “nonviolence” in describing the post-Oslo peace negotiations, which failed to stop increased confiscation and colonization of West Bank land. Norman makes the case that reframing nonviolence in terms of a strategy for resistance rooted in long-standing Palestinian traditions and grassroots movements would increase the appeal of nonviolent action.

The popular youth-led movement in Serbia that led to the 2000 uprising against the Milosevic government is the setting for Janjira Sombatpoonsiri’s chapter on the use of humor in nonviolent resistance campaigns and its impact on mobilization, countering government repression, and communicating their message to the wider public. She notes how the opposition Otpor movement was able to utilize existing political opportunity structures, not just on the national level but on conditions on the local level as well, to achieve its goals.

Olena Nikolayenko also utilizes Sidney Tarrow’s theory of political opportunity structure in examining Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution by focusing on divisions among elites, alliances within the opposition, and the role of influential allies. Her tracing of the evolution of the youth movements in the years prior to the uprising underscores the indigenous roots of the uprising in the face of the often-exaggerated role of Western support. Given that literature on civil resistance has focused primarily on uprisings against authoritarian regimes while social movement theory has focused primarily on democracies, Ukraine—with its mixtures of democratic and autocratic attributes—serves as an important case study.

A particularly insightful chapter is Brian Martin’s analysis that challenges standard notions regarding the power of violence and the effectiveness of repression; it traces the evolution of understanding regarding the paradox of the use of force by the state against peaceful opponents. In examining cases from Indonesian-occupied East Timor, czarist Russia, and apartheid South Africa, Martin notes how attacks on nonviolent protesters can actually backfire, weakening the regime and strengthening the resistance.

Sharon Erickson Nepstad looks at the successful suppression of pro-democracy struggles against authoritarian rulers in Panama and Kenya during the 1980s. Just as analyzing what constitutes effective strategies for the resistance can help ascertain its likelihood of success, so too does understanding counterstrategies by the state. Unfortunately, Nepstad fails to note how the pro-democracy movement in Kenya eventually won—not by toppling the dictatorial president as they initially hoped but by pressing for legal, constitutional, and institutional change over a period of several years, which limited his power and eventually forced his retirement. Despite this, Nepstad provides an important new understanding of the factors leading to the success or failure of civil resistance against authoritarian rule.

The first section of the volume concludes with Véronique Dudouet’s analysis of the role of external actors in supporting nonviolent campaigns for human rights and democracy. Her examination of external assistance to resistance movements looks not only at third-party nonviolent intervention but also at financial, technical, and symbolic means of support (both direct and indirect) from governments, intergovernmental organizations, and nonstate actors. She concludes that such external assistance is at best marginal and secondary to the internal struggle and can be useful only if those providing such support do so in the context of upholding international human rights norms in a consistent manner.

The second section, focusing on frontiers in the field, ironically begins with Dustin Ells Howes’s overview of a series of successful civil resistance campaigns by plebs in the early days of the Roman republic, particularly against conscription. While this chapter comes across as a bit out of place in a collection on contemporary and recent case studies, Howes notes important lessons for today regarding the connection of means with ends and how foreign military intervention, even for allegedly idealist purposes, can undermine freedom at home.

Drawing on Bent Flyvbjerg’s concept of phronesis, Sean Cabot argues that the technical and instrumental approach to nonviolence has neglected how activists have had to utilize both practical knowledge and ethical reasoning in the course of their struggles. He challenges claims that Gene Sharp, who pioneered the strategic analysis of nonviolent action, was somehow responsible for the recent waves of civil resistance campaigns, arguing that while his contribution to an understanding of the theory and dynamics of nonviolent action is indeed of great significance, neither he nor any outside academic can explain the immediate social contexts of a given struggle and the practical wisdom that only activists on the ground can really understand.

Utilizing the social action theory of Jürgen Habermas, Stellan Vinthagen’s chapter makes the case that focusing too much on technique in nonviolent action campaigns fails to appreciate its multidimensional nature and nonstrategic aspects. Not only does nonviolent resistance have an important instrumental role in the attainment of political goals, he argues, but it also has important normative aspects, enables the articulation of self-expression by those in the resistance, and provides for the application of communicative rationality. He posits that all four of these dimensions need to be applied simultaneously for a nonviolent action campaign to succeed.

While most political scientists who study civil resistance have gone to great lengths to stress the distinction between the strategic and ethical approaches to nonviolent action, Chaiwat Satha-Anand concludes the volume’s second section by arguing that it may be illusory to separate pragmatic and principled nonviolence. While religious pacifist leaders like Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. were also brilliant strategists, he argues, building just and sustainable democratic systems in the face of authoritarianism and social injustice requires not just strategic acumen but also a strong ethical foundation.

Civil Resistance reminds us why, in a world of asymmetrical conflicts, the study of civil resistance has become mainstream in political science and related fields. In the ongoing struggle for democratic governance and greater popular challenges to structural violence, a better understanding of the theory and dynamics of strategic nonviolent action and the relationship between means and ends will become increasingly important to the scholarly community and beyond.