Ever heard of Gene Sharp? Until last week - me neither. And if you met this 84-year-old gent from Ohio, I bet you wouldn’t have thought his ideas may be behind some of the major revolutions against dictatorships in the post-Cold War era.
Kindly and softly spoken scholar was the guest of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues (LINK) last week as the audience packed into the largest Committee Room 10. The documentary “How to Start a Revolution?” by Ruaridh Arrow (LINK) was followed by the talk.
Despite very idealistic nature of Mr Sharp’s views, his 198 methods to overrule the dictator using non-violent means seem rather successful. From Serbia at the turn of the millennium to the current events in the Arab world, Mr Sharp and his small team have been advising to revolutionary groups seeking to achieve so without the bloodshed.
The Parliamentary Q&A session offered some interesting points on Mr Sharp’s work. Here are the highlights some of the most interesting comments/answers:
- His 198 methods (LINK) of non-violent protest is the guideline how to start a revolution, but it doesn’t say how to finish it;
- He only addresses the dictatorship to democracy route, yet nowadays many movements try to tackle rotten forms of democracy;
- His Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) has also produced a guideline how to prevent the military coup d’état;
- Social media are a mean of communication and that’s it – the message itself is more important that the way how it is communicated, “Twitter revolutions” is an incorrect catchphrase;
- Mr Sharp is not really a fan of the superhero-type of the leader; instead he is in favour of the leadership of thought that could be easily replaced or replicated, when/if needed;
- Mr Sharp’s ideas make me think about him as “MacGyver of IR” who aims to stop enemies using “political jujitsu”, without any weapons or aggression;
- As of external interventions, Mr Sharp argues that depending on oneself not other governments has an important confidence building attitude that each state needs in the post-revolution reality.
Interestingly, Mr Sharp was also asked about the alleged ties between his work and the CIA. In the past, the Iranian regime had drew a cartoon where Mr Sharp is presented in a meeting with other leading US decision-makers in the White House discussing the ways how to empower the grassroots movement in Iran. I have also found this Russian mockery image putting together logos of various revolutions and questioning their know-how independence.
Indeed, they do share certain patterns. However, as Jamila Raqib, Executive Director of the AEI, pointed out, they are struggling with their funding as they don’t fit into typical foundations’ categories of projects and haven’t been endorsed by the US government. Yet, it seems their work might have a great impact, and better “value-for money” return, than expensive external actions in tackling non-democratic regimes.
- Jamila Raqib on Twitter at: @jamilaraqib
- BBC Hardtalk with Gene Sharp
- Channel 4 interview with Gene Sharp
- BBC piece on Mr Sharp from February 2011 by the author of the documentary about him
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