ICNC provides information and educational opportunities about nonviolent civil resistance to activists and organizers around the world. Our view is that nonviolent struggle is a social science that can be studied and understood, and that practitioners increase their chances of success by learning from each other as well as from cutting edge academic scholarship on this topic.

While there is no simple formula for success, there are lessons, insights, and general principles that can be discerned about how ordinary people unify themselves, organize, mobilize, strategize, communicate, build coalitions, maintain nonviolent discipline, resist repression, and engage in effective civil resistance against oppressive and corrupt political, economic, and social systems. We draw examples from diverse movements around the world, including movements struggling for democratic rights, accountability and transparency (anti-corruption), self-determination, minority rights, women’s rights, indigenous and land rights, labor rights, environmental justice, and a wide variety of other causes.

ICNC offers a wealth of resources in many languages on topics related to civil resistance and movement organizing. We also support the development of new educational resources. Read more below:

• Resource Library
  Visit our full resource library to find hundreds of resources on civil resistance in over 70 languages.
• Ten Key Resources for Activists and Organizers
  Are you interested in civil resistance and don’t know where to start? We’ve made a list of general introductory resources–many of them short articles–to introduce you to the field.
• New ICNC-supported Resources for Activists and Organizers
  We support the development of new educational resources for activists and organizers, and publish these through ICNC Press. Check our our current and forthcoming titles!
• Webinar Library
  ICNC regularly offers webinars on particular topics of nonviolent civil resistance, featuring activists, scholars, and experts in the field. Sign up for upcoming webinars and view our archive of past webinars.
• Nonviolent Conflict Summaries
  ICNC has created a series of Conflict Summaries that discuss the history behind, actions during, and ensuing events of major nonviolent movements of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

We currently have resources in 70 languages on our website. Learn more below:

• Find translations in your language
• Request a particular resource to be translated into a language
• Apply to be a translator for ICNC
• Glossary of Civil Resistance Terms for Translators
  We have built a glossary of 150 terms in the field of civil resistance, which will help translators ensure accuracy in their work.
• About the ICNC Translations Program
  Our Translations Program has two goals: 1) identify and share existing translations of resources on civil resistance, and 2) support new high-quality translations into diverse languages.

Some activists and organizers may be interested in ICNC’s programmatic offerings focusing on media, scholars and students, or the policy community.

• Write for ICNC’s blog: Minds of the Movement
  ICNC’s blog Minds of the Movement aims to share cutting-edge developments in the field of civil resistance; highlight new research, ideas, resources, and practical knowledge on the study and practice of civil resistance; and provide analysis of nonviolent movements and the intersection of civil resistance and other disciplines. Contributors include activists, organizers, scholars, journalists, policymakers, and students. If you would like to contribute an article, please read our Submission Guidelines.
• ICNC Press & Publications
  Check out our growing list of ICNC Press publications, each of which is available for free download or hardcopy purchase.
• Programs and Resources for Scholars and Students
• Programs and Resources for the Policy Community

Educational Programs

Since our founding in 2002, ICNC has offered a variety of opportunities for practitioners to deepen their knowledge of movement organizing and civil resistance. These include:

• ICNC Summer Institute
  The ICNC Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict (formerly called the Fletcher Summer Institute) was the first professional education program on civil resistance in the world. It was a 5-6 day course with approximately 45-50 international participants, organized by ICNC in partnership with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University) from 2006-2016. In 2017, in response to rising demand for knowledge of civil resistance around the world, ICNC made a strategic decision to discontinue the ICNC Summer Institute and instead to establish ICNC Regional Institutes, which aim to provide increased accessibility and allow more participants to attend.
• The James Lawson Institute
  ICNC organized and ran the James Lawson Institute in 2013 and 2014 as an eight-day program for North American activists and organizers dedicated to sharing knowledge of movement organizing and civil resistance. Following tremendous success with ICNC’s incubation, the James Lawson Institute launched as an independent entity in 2017 offering intensive study of civil resistance to activists in the North American context. Information about the James Lawson Institute and its programs can be found here.
• Regional Institutes
  ICNC regional institutes are one week-long intensive courses on civil resistance that are offered around the world. They are taught by leading international scholars and practitioners, providing a firm academic grasp of the subject of civil resistance as well as a practical understanding of its use in a variety of conflicts. These institutes are a partnership between ICNC and at least one local institution (generally a university). Past Regional Institutes have been held in Quito, Ecuador; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Kiev, Ukraine.
• ICNC-Rutgers Online Course
  Beginning in 2011, ICNC partnered with the International Institute for Peace at Rutgers University to offer an online course facilitated by experts in the field on the dynamics and power of civil resistance. This course (offered each fall season) is free and open to anyone: activists, organizers, scholars, students, journalists, members of NGOs, the policy community, and the interested public. Since its inception, hundreds of people throughout the world have taken this course and deepened their knowledge about movement organizing and civil resistance.
• Self-paced Online Courses
  We developed online courses that were self-paced, which means that anyone with an internet connection can take them at anytime by themselves. For people who only have occasional internet access, parts of the courses will also be downloadable so they can be viewed offline. Courses will be designed to cover beginner, intermediate, and advanced level material.

Grants and Funding

ICNC has offered a wide range of funding and grant opportunities. Numerous former programs for activists are included below, as well as some of our scholarly and research programs that may be of interest to activists and organizers.

• Learning Initiatives Network (LIN) program
  Between 2014-2016, ICNC ran our Learning Initiative Network (LIN) program, which supported the work of individuals and teams who are strongly committed to learning and spreading knowledge about civil resistance in their communities. In 2017, ICNC began offering additional support and mentoring to past LIN fellows and others through our new competitive Activist Education Grants program. We may re-establish the LIN program in the future.
• Activist Education Grants
  ICNC solicits grant proposals from individuals and groups and supports educational initiatives (such as developing educational resources, online courses, translations and curricula; convening workshops and educational gatherings; and developing and sharing knowledge) about civil resistance. Click here to read about featured projects by our grantees.
• Curriculum Development & Teaching Support (for classroom or online courses)
  ICNC supports faculty, educators, and practitioners in developing curricula and teaching classroom-based and online courses on civil resistance for university students, professionals and activists around the world.
• High School Curriculum Fellowships
  This program supports high school teachers in developing and incorporating curricula on civil resistance into existing junior- or senior-level social science and history courses.
• Monographs
  ICNC supports the development of and publishes peer-reviewed monographs. Each monograph builds on in-depth research on a particular topic and is written with the aim of reaching both practitioners and academic audiences.
• Special Reports
  ICNC supports research and writing of shorter publications on subjects of civil resistance that are relevant and accessible to a broader policy community, including policy experts, decision makers and international governmental and non-governmental practitioners.
• ICNC Webinar Series
  ICNC offers a webinar series focusing on critical ideas, case studies, and questions related to civil resistance and nonviolent movements. ICNC welcomes proposals and submissions for new webinars.

In our work with activists and organizers, ICNC abides by the following operating guidelines:

1. Our work with activists, organizers, and other practitioners is demand driven. In response to contacts and requests initiated by groups or people seeking to end oppression or injustice through nonviolent methods, ICNC can help in enabling seminars, workshops, and educational events to be held; and/or supporting general educational projects related to civil resistance.

2. ICNC is an educational organization that develops and shares knowledge and information about nonviolent civil resistance. In our work, we do not provide political or strategic advice to those contemplating or engaged in civil resistance; we do not assist activists in conducting civil resistance actions; and we do not furnish funds to subsidize a movement’s operations.

3. ICNC can support research and general educational projects by other nongovernmental organizations and individuals if they are directly related to expanding understanding of the principles and skills involved in civil resistance.

4. ICNC observes the right to privacy of those who contact it, for the protection of people who may face repression or intimidation for exercising their rights. Accordingly, ICNC abides by requests for confidentiality from individuals who communicate with it.