Understanding the Roots of Resistance: Ches Thurber's "Between Mao and Gandhi"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

From Eastern Europe to South Africa to the Arab Spring, nonviolent action has proven capable of overthrowing autocratic regimes and bringing about revolutionary political change. How do dissidents come to embrace a nonviolent strategy in the first place? Why do others rule it out in favor of taking up arms? Ches Thurber takes up these questions in his new book, Between Mao and Gandhi: the Social Roots of Civil Resistance. Drawing on cases from Nepal and Syria, as well as global cross-national data, this book details the processes through which challenger organizations come to embrace or reject civil resistance as a means of capturing state power. It develops a relational theory, showing how the social ties that underpin challenger organizations shape their ability and willingness to attempt regime change using nonviolent means alone.

This roundtable convenes leading conflict experts to discuss themes from the book: Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham (University of Maryland), Charles Butcher (NTNU), Janet Lewis (George Washington University), and Jonathan Pinckney (USIP). They will draw connections with their own research on topics ranging from strategies of resistance to social networks and ethnic conflict.

The panel will highlight promising avenues for future research in the field. These may include questions such as when and how civil resistance can be used by members of marginalized communities, the possibilities for change in social networks over time, and the impact of the social composition of movements on post-conflict outcomes. Ches Thurber will briefly present ongoing research on the role of inter-ethnic coalitions in civil resistance campaigns.

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Chair

• Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham University of Maryland, College Park

Presenters

• Ches Thurber Northern Illinois University

• Charles Robert Butcher Norwegian University of Science and Technology

• Jonathan Pinckney The Horizons Project

• Janet I. Lewis George Washington University