Brian Martin - Technology for Nonviolent Struggle

Giliam de Valk in cooperation with Johan Niezing, Research on Civilian-Based Defence (Amsterdam: SISWO, 1993). The background to this book is described in chapter 10.

Johan Galtung, “On the strategy of nonmilitary defense: some proposals and problems,” in Johan Galtung, Peace, War and Defense. Essays in Peace Research , Volume Two (Copenhagen: Christian Ejlers, 1976), pp. 378-426, 466-472, quote at pp. 390-391.

R. W. Fogg, “A technical equivalent of war,” in H. Chestnut (ed.), Contributions of Technology to International Conflict Resolution (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1986), pp. 113-120.

Gene Sharp, Social Power and Political Freedom (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1980), pp. 403-404.

I thank Ellen Elster for this point. See Berenice Carroll, “Peace research: the cult of power,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 16, No. 4, December 1972, pp. 585-616.

See for example Hilary and Steven Rose (eds.), The Political Economy of Science: Ideology of/in the Natural Sciences (London: Macmillan, 1976) and The Radicalisation of Science: Ideology of/in the Natural Sciences (London: Macmillan, 1976); and the journals (all now defunct) Science for the People , Science for People and Radical Science Journal . Unfortunately, the critique of engineering does not boast an extensive literature.

The reasons are harder to pin down, because there are few definite actions or motivations to investigate, as in all cases where the issue is lack of interest and lack of investigation. I think that the reasons mentioned above are plausible, and have some basis in the writings and activities of activists and scholars (though I haven’t gone into this sort of detail). By searching for explanations for neglect, it may be possible to find ways to stimulate greater interest in the topic.

I thank Robert Burrowes in particular for useful comments.

Direct disarmament is the disabling and dismantling of weapons by people without the permission of governments and commanders.

Carl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege [On War] (Berlin: Ferdinand Dümmler, 1832). The following paragraphs on the centre of gravity are taken from Brian Martin, “Social defence strategy: the role of technology,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 36, No. 5, 1999, pp. 535-552.

Anders Boserup and Andrew Mack, War Without Weapons: Non-violence in National Defence (London: Frances Pinter, 1974), pp. 148-182, quote at p. 163.

Gene Keyes, “Strategic non-violent defense: the construct of an option,” Journal of Strategic Studies , Vol. 4, 1981, pp. 125-151, at p. 133.

Robert J. Burrowes, The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian Approach (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996), p. 209.

One case is the Palestinian intifada, though the resistance is better described as unarmed than nonviolent.

Andreas Speck notes that this same list of values — decentralised, interactive, cooperative — can also be obtained by starting from the values of a just society.

T. E. Finer, The Man on Horseback: The Role of the Military in Politics (London: Pall Mall Press, 1962); D. J. Goodspeed, The Conspirators: A Study in the Coup d’État (London: Macmillan, 1962); Edward Luttwak, Coup d’État: A Practical Handbook (London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1968), pp. 111-116.

Roland Bleiker, Nonviolent Struggle and the Revolution in East Germany (Cambridge, MA: Albert Einstein Institution, 1993). Andreas Speck points out that there was also a negative side to the role of West German television. Many leading East German activists wanted to turn East German into a democracy, even a genuine people’s democracy (as opposed to a dictatorship calling itself a people’s democracy). However, West German television did not broadcast the ideas of this East German opposition, instead pushing for German unification under the West German model.

Tony Dowmunt (ed.), Channels of Resistance: Global Television and Local Empowerment (London: British Film Institute in association with Channel Four Television, 1993) provides a number of useful case studies.

Adam Roberts, “Civil resistance to military coups,” Journal of Peace Research , Vol. 12, 1975, pp. 19-36.

Royal D. Hutchinson, Czechoslovakia 1968: The Radio and the Resistance (Copenhagen: Institute for Peace and Conflict Research, 1969); H. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia’s Interrupted Revolution ( Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976); Joseph Wechsberg, The Voices (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969); Philip Windsor and Adam Roberts, Czechoslovakia 1968: Reform, Repression and Resistance (London: Chatto and Windus, 1969).

Lawrence C. Soley and John S. Nichols, Clandestine Radio Broadcasting: A Study of Revolutionary and Counterrevolutionary Electronic Communication (New York: Praeger, 1987).

Bruce Girard (ed.), A Passion for Radio: Radio Waves and Community (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1992); Ron Sakolsky and Stephen Dunifer (eds.), Seizing the Airwaves: A Free Radio Handbook (Edinburgh: AK Press, 1998); Lawrence Soley, Free Radio: Electronic Civil Disobedience (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999).

Brian Martin, “Lessons in nonviolence from the Fiji coups,” Gandhi Marg , Vol. 10, No. 6, September 1988, pp. 326-339.

On micropower radio, see Ron Sakolsky and Stephen Dunifer (eds.), Seizing the Airwaves: A Free Radio Handbook (Edinburgh: AK Press, 1998); Lawrence Soley, Free Radio: Electronic Civil Disobedience (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999).

Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change (London: Thames and Hudson, 1985, second edition), pp. 224-227.

David H. Albert (ed.), Tell the American People: Perspectives on the Iranian Revolution (Philadelphia: Movement for a New Society, 1980); F. Hoveyda, The Fall of the Shah (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980).

Andrew McMillan, Death in Dili (Sydney: Hodder and Stoughton, 1992), pp. 163-164, 230-232. On the role of nonviolent action in the East Timorese struggle, see Chisako M. Fukuda, “Peace through nonviolent action: the East Timorese resistance movement’s strategy for engagement,” Pacifica Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2000, pp. 16-31.

Michael Henderson, Experiment with Untruth: India under Emergency (Delhi: Macmillan, 1977).

Jacques Semelin, Unarmed against Hitler: Civilian Resistance in Europe, 1939-1943 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993), p. 85.

Patrick Fitzgerald and Mark Leopold, Stranger on the Line: The Secret History of Phone Tapping (London: Bodley Head, 1987).