Civil Resistance Movements
and External Actors
Maria J. Stephan, Ph.D.
2013 Fletcher Summer Institute for the
Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict
19 June 2013
Outside Help: Framing questions
How important is external assistance?
What types of support do NV activists need?
Authoritarian backlash vs. right to receive help:
should there be a responsibility to assist?
Pros and Cons of GOVT support
Cons:
• Inconsistent, often untimely, bureaucratic
• Used by regimes to undermine the legitimacy
of indigenous movements
Pros:
• NV activists need funds, knowledge, skills,
connections to global solidarity networks
• Can help inhibit regime repression
• Solidarity boosts morale/confidence
Diplomats’ Handbook
• Resources + assets available to diplomats to help democrats; Activists should be aware of them too!
• A few tools:
www.diplomatshandbook.org
Meeting
activists/Reporting
Trial monitoring/prison
visits
Connecting activists to
international
actors/networks
Diplomatic immunity
Funding/training
Physical
deployment/solidarity
actions
Demarches to foreign
govts
Convening opposition,
members of other pillars
Provide refugee
asylum/sanctuary
SOLIDARITY IN ACTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNIk_b
RweH4&feature=youtu.be
Other GOVT Tools
Leveraging aid
Sanctions: diplo, econ, travel bans, asset
freezes
Pressuring companies
Golden parachutes
Supporting free media infrastructure
UN Resolutions/ Fact finding missions
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