xxv, 407 pages : 24 cm

This book identified peaceful struggle as a key phenomenon in international politics a year before the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt confirmed its central argument. Civil resistance--non-violent action against such challenges as dictatorial rule, racial discrimination and foreign military occupation--is a significant but inadequately understood feature of world politics. Especially through the peaceful revolutions of 1989, and the developments in the Arab world since December 2010, it has helped to shape the world we live in. Civil Resistance and Power Politics covers most of the leading cases, including the actions master-minded by Gandhi, the US civil rights struggle in the 1960s, the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, the 'people power' revolt in the Philippines in the 1980s, the campaigns against apartheid in South Africa, the various movements contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989-91, and, in this century, the 'colour revolutions' in Georgia and Ukraine. The chapters, written by leading experts, are richly descriptive and analytically rigorous

Originally published: 2009

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction / Adam Roberts -- People power and protest : the literature on civil resistance in historical context / April Carter -- Gandhi and civil resistance in India, 1917-47 : key issues / Judith M. Brown -- The US civil rights movement : power from below and above, 1945-70 / Doug McAdam -- The interplay of non-violent and violent action in Northern Ireland, 1967-72 / Richard English -- The dialectics of empire : Soviet leaders and the challenge of civil resistance in East-Central Europe, 1968-91 / Mark Kramer -- Civil resistance in Czechoslovakia : from Soviet invasion to 'Velvet Revolution', 1968-89 / Kieran Williams -- Towards 'self-limiting revolution' : Poland, 1970-89 / Aleksander Smolar -- Portugal : 'the Revolution of the Carnations', 1974-75 / Kenneth Maxwell -- Mass protests in the Iranian Revolution, 1977-79 / Ervand Abrahamian -- 'People power' in the Philippines, 1983-86 / Amado Mendoza Jr. -- Political mass mobilization against authoritarian rule : Pinochet's Chile, 1983-88 / Carlos Huneeus -- The interplay of non-violent and violent action in the movement against apartheid in South Africa, 1983-94 / Tom Lodge -- The intersection of ethnic nationalism and people power tactics in the Baltic States, 1987-91 / Mark R. Beissinger -- The 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and beyond : echoes of Gandhi / Merle Goldman -- Civil resistance and civil society : lessons from the collapse of the German Democratic Republic in 1989 / Charles S. Maier -- The limits of prudence : civil resistance in Kosovo, 1990-98 / Howard Clark -- Civil society versus Slobodan Milošević : Serbia, 1991-2000 / Ivan Vejvoda -- Georgia's 'Rose Revolution' of 2003 : enforcing peaceful change / Stephen Jones -- Ukraine's 'Orange Revolution' of 2004 : the parad-xes of negotiation / Andrew Wilson -- The moment of the monks : Burma, 2007 / Christina Fink -- A century of civil resistance : some lessons and questions / Timothy Garton Ash

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